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It had been a long time since Alabama, or the SEC had won a National Championship; all of 3 seasons ago! The Crimson Tide put an end to that with their 45-40 win over Clemson Monday night in the National Championship, earning a unanimous vote in every poll, the BTD top 25 included.
It brought to end another wild college football season, and a less than satisfying bowl season, one that not only saw more relatively lopsided games than close ones, especially on New Year's eve and day, but also a fair number of losses to higher ranked teams in the bowl games, which scrambled the standings a bit.
Your BTD writers collectively scratched our heads, and a couple of us threw up their ballots, and moved on to basketball season! There were 4 ties, and we wound up with 22 teams in the top 20. RVM even engaged in vote splitting! Nevertheless, ...
Consensus:
| Rank | Team | Points |
| 1 | Alabama (3) | 75 |
| 2 | Clemson | 71 |
| 3 | Stanford | 68 |
| 4 | Ohio State | 67 |
| 5 | Michigan State | 60 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 58 |
| 7 | TCU | 52 |
| 8-Tie | Houston | 50 |
| 8-Tie | Mississippi | 50 |
| 10 | Iowa | 48 |
| 11 | Michigan | 43 |
| 12 | Baylor | 42 |
| 13 | North Carolina | 40 |
| 14 | Notre Dame | 36 |
| 15 | Navy | 29 |
| 16 | Utah | 27 |
| 17-Tie | Western Kentucky | 23 |
| 17-Tie | Wisconsin | 23 |
| 19 | LSU | 19 |
| 20-Tie | Oregon | 16 |
| 20-Tie | Tennessee | 16 |
| 20-Tie | Florida State | 16 |
| 23-Tie | Northwestern | 11 |
| 23-Tie | Mississippi State | 11 |
| 25 | Oklahoma State | 9.5 |
|
Others: Toledo 6, Florida 4, Temple 2, Boise State 1, Washington State .5 |
Individual Polls:
| Andy | Kurt | Robert | |
| 1 | Alabama | Alabama | Alabama |
| 2 | Stanford | Clemson | Clemson |
| 3 | Clemson | Ohio State | Ohio State |
| 4 | Michigan State | Stanford | Stanford |
| 5 | Ohio State | Oklahoma | Oklahoma |
| 6 | Houston | Notre Dame | Houston |
| 7 | Iowa | Michigan State | Michigan State |
| 8 | Mississippi | TCU | Iowa |
| 9 | TCU | Baylor | TCU |
| 10 | Oklahoma | Mississippi | Mississippi |
| 11 | Michigan | North Carolina | Michigan |
| 12 | North Carolina | Oregon | Navy |
| 13 | Western Kentucky | Michigan | Baylor |
| 14 | Baylor | Iowa | Notre Dame |
| 15 | Utah | LSU | North Carolina |
| 16 | Wisconsin | Houston | Western Kentucky |
| 17 | Navy | Oklahoma State | Utah |
| 18 | Mississippi State | Florida State | Wisconsin |
| 19 | Tennessee | Utah | Tennessee |
| 20 | Northwestern | Navy | Toledo |
| 21 | LSU | Wisconsin | Florida State |
| 22 | Notre Dame | Florida | Northwestern |
| 23 | Florida State | Mississippi State | LSU |
| 24 | Temple | Tennessee | Oregon |
| 25 | Boise State | Northwestern | Oklahoma State/Washington State |
While there was a heated race for position behind 'Bama, there was also a pretty clear cutoff for the top 10. The B1G Ten did well, with 4 teams in the top 11, and 5 ranked, while the Pac-12, other than Stanford, fizzled in their attempts to finish, at least among their higher rated teams, and wound up with just 3 ranked teams, and only 4 getting any votes. This from a bunch of guys who saw more Pac-12 games than any other conference. Or maybe, its because we did see them all a lot.
The good news is coaching hires are already mostly in place, and soon it will be National Signing Day, and then time for spring ball. All this gives us new information to misinterpret in mis-predicting how next season will go!
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com