DALLAS (FWAA) The Ohio State Buckeyes, now 8-0 after after a 44-3 taming on Indiana, remain the top ranked team in the Football Writers Association of America's Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll.
Ohio State, a five-time winner of the Grantland Rice Trophy as the national champion as chosen by the FWAA, received all 16 first-place votes this week. Last week, the Buckeyes laid claim to 15 of those coveted No. 1 votes.
The top five teams i n the poll remained the same, with Michigan, USC, West Virginia and Texas remaining in place.
Though the Big Ten still has the top two teams in the rankings, the Southeastern Conference continues to boast five of the 16 ranked teams. Auburn, now at No. 6, is the highest-ranked SEC team. Florida (No. 7), Tennessee (No. 9), Arkansas (No. 13) and LSU (No. 15) are also in the rankings.
Rutgers, at 7-0, makes its first-ever visit to the Super 16. The upstart Scarlet Knights give the Big East three ranked schools. While No. 4 West Virginia and No. 8 Louisville are off this Saturday, the two meet a week from Thursday in Louisville.
Despite dropping from No. 11 to a tie for 13th, California is the second Pac-10 team to be ranked, along with No. 3 USC.
Texas continues to be lone ranked team from the Big 12, while Boise State keeps pace for the WAC at at No. 16. Georgia Tech is the only team to fall from the rankings this week, leaving the ACC with just one ranked team (Clemson at No. 10).
The complete poll through games of Oct. 22 is as follows:
The Grantland Rice Trophy has been presented to the national champion in college football since 1954. Named in honor of the legendary sportswriter who passed away in 1954, the trophy was the first national championship award to be presented following college football's traditional post-season.
In 2002, the FWAA introduced the Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll to determine the association's national champion. The 16 regionally-balanced voters will not present weekly rankings and will make their ballots public. For the first time, those ballots will be also posted online at grantlandrice.com, an interactive weblog.
In addition to the poll, the 16 pollsters also decide the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week. For the second straight season, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl will take part in presenting the weekly honor. Since 1971, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl has hosted five games that have decided the college football national championship, including two Bowl Championship Series title games. The 2007 game will be played on Jan. 1. The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, along with the Tostitos BCS Championship Game, moves to the new stadium in Glendale, Ariz., this season.
For more information on the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week, go to footballwriters.com or fiestabowl.org.
The Football Writers Association of America, a non-profit organization founded in 1941, consists of more than 900 men and women across North America who cover college football for a living. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include gameday operations, major awards, a national poll and its annual All-America team.