DALLAS (FWAA) The Southern California Trojans have
gone wire to wire as the top-ranked team in the regular season in the
2005 Grantland Rice Super
16 Poll. The Trojans, the two-time defending Football Writers
Association of America national champions, began the season at No. 1 and
have finished the regular season that way with a 12-0 record that runs their
winning streak to 34 games. USC added a first-place vote after its 66-19
thrashing of UCLA this past Saturday.
Texas (12-0), equally impressive with a 70-3 rout of Colorado in the
Big 12 title game, won its 19th straight game and, in turn, has also
finished the regular season where it started, at No. 2 in the Super 16.
The Longhorns held on the six first-place votes.
Texas and USC meet in the 2006 Rose Bowl, the BCS Championship
Game.
Big Ten champion Penn State entrenched itself at No. 3, while Ohio State and Notre
Dame moved up as the beneficiaries of conference championship losses by
LSU and Virginia Tech. The Buckeyes are No. 4 and the Fighting Irish are
ranked fifth in the final regular-season poll. Virginia Tech fell into a tie
with LSU at No. 10 in the rankings.
The Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll, introduced prior to the 2002 season,
ranks the nation's top 16 Division I-A football teams. A regionally-balanced
group of 16 selectors votes in the poll. The pollsters also selected the
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week, which was announced
each Monday this season.
In addition, the 16 voters representing four regions, have cast a ballot
each week, while giving a synopsis of their ballot. Unlike other college
football polls, the FWAA makes each of its pollster's ballots public, along
with the weekly synopsis. At the conclusion of the Bowl Championship Series,
the FWAA will release its final poll and the top-ranked team will be
awarded the Grantland Rice Trophy, which USC has won a record six times.
Among seven conferences represented in this week's poll, the SEC
has
four teams among the Super 16. The Pacific-10 has three teams in the
final regular-season poll.
The complete final 2005 regular-season poll is as follows:
The FWAA has presented the Grantland Rice Trophy, named in honor
of the legendary sportswriter, to college football's national champion each
year since 1954. When introduced, it was the first national championship
trophy to be awarded after college football's postseason. This is the fourth
season that a season-long poll is concurrent with the award.
For further information contact Steve Richardson, Executive Director
of the FWAA (972-713-6198, tiger@sportswriters.net)
or Ted Gangi, FWAA webmaster (214-823-7992,
webmaster@sportswriters.net).