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2006 BCS, polls, Bowl Predictions and computer ratings

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CleveBucks

CleveBucks

Serenity now
First poll tomorrow morning...

USA TODAY Top 25 poll unveiled Friday

From staff reports

When the curtain dropped on the 2005 season, Texas was left standing as national champions after a memorable 41-38 defeat of Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Where the Longhorns will start their title defense will be unveiled with the release of the USA TODAY Top 25 Coaches' poll on Friday at 5 a.m. ET.

The biggest obstacle for Mack Brown's team is the loss of superstar quarterback Vince Young, who used his arm and feet to power the school to its first title in 35 years. Untested freshmen Colt McCoy and Jevan Sneed are vying to replace Young and their performance will dictate how the Texas offense performs.

Two teams eager for a shot at knocking off the Longhorns will be Ohio State and Southern California, who both had their championship dreams ended when Young engineered fourth-quarter comebacks last season.

The Buckeyes return one of the nation's top offenses with Troy Smith at quarterback and Ted Ginn Jr. playing wide receiver and returning kicks. Jim Tressel's team will have a chance for payback on the second weekend of the season in Austin.

The Trojans lost several key pieces to their team when Matt Leinart finished up his eligibility and star running backs Reggie Bush and LenDale White opted to leave early for the NFL. Filling those holes will be crucial, however Pete Carroll's tremendous recruiting success in recent years has Southern California talented enough to maintain its spot near the top of the poll.

After leading Notre Dame to the BCS in his first season, Charlie Weis has the Irish thinking national championship again. Senior quarterback Brady Quinn will enter the season as one of the top Heisman Trophy candidates.

West Virginia is a darkhorse contender after finishing 11-1 and handling Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. The Mountaineers will boast plenty of firepower with nine starters back on offense, including sophomore standouts Pat White and Steve Slaton.

You can also toss SEC powers LSU, Florida and Auburn into the title discussion along with perennial contenders Oklahoma, Florida State and Miami (Fla.) in what should be a wide-open race to play for all the marbles on Jan. 8 in Arizona.
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Now That's What I'm Talking About!!!!

ohiostatemedtopper.jpg
 
Upvote 0
Looks like a #1 vs. #2 matchup

Top 25 Poll

Rank Team (first-place votes) Record Points Final 2005 rank
1. Ohio State (28) 10-2 1,487 4
2. Texas (11) 13-0 1,378 1
3. (tie) Notre Dame (9) 9-3 1,348 11
3. (tie) Southern California (1) 12-1 1,348 2
5. Oklahoma (13) 8-4 1,320 22
6. Auburn (1) 9-3 1,206 14
7. West Virginia 11-1 1,202 6
8. Florida 9-3 1,054 16
9. LSU 11-2 1,037 5
10. Florida State 8-5 874 23
11. Miami (Fla.) 9-3 839 18
12. California 8-4 798 25
13. Louisville 9-3 785 20
14. Georgia 10-3 784 10
15. Michigan 7-5 778 NR
16. Virginia Tech 11-2 591 7
17. Iowa 7-5 519 NR
18. Clemson 8-4 493 21
19. Penn State 11-1 406 3
20. Oregon 10-2 373 12
21. TCU 11-1 270 9
22. Nebraska 8-4 261 24
23. Tennessee 5-6 216 NR
24. Alabama 10-2 210 8
25. Texas Tech 9-3 198 19


Others receiving votes

Arizona State (7-5) 182; Boston College (9-3) 87; Utah (7-5) 84; Arkansas (4-7) 64; South Carolina (7-5) 55; Boise State (9-4) 46; Wisconsin (10-3) 37; UCLA (10-2) 29; Georgia Tech (7-5) 28; Fresno State (8-5) 14; Tulsa (9-4) 11; Iowa State (7-5) 9; Minnesota (7-5) 9; Maryland (5-6) 8; Purdue (5-6) 7; Texas A&M (5-6) 6; Memphis (7-5) 5; Nevada (9-3) 3; Texas-El Paso (8-4) 3; Arizona (3-8) 2; Brigham Young (6-6) 2; Northern Illinois (7-5) 2; Northwestern (7-5) 2; Oregon State (5-6) 2; Rutgers (7-5) 2; Colorado (7-6) 1; Duke (1-10) 1.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The USA TODAY Board of Coaches is made up of 63 head coaches at Division I-A institutions. All are members of the American Football Coaches Association. This season’s board: Chuck Amato, N.C. State; Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech; Mike Bellotti, Oregon; Jack Bicknell, Louisiana Tech; Larry Blakeney, Troy; Bobby Bowden, Florida State; Tommy Bowden, Clemson; Jeff Bower, Southern Miss; Gregg Brandon, Bowling Green; Art Briles, Houston; Mack Brown, Texas; Watson Brown, UAB; John Bunting, North Carolina; Bill Callahan, Nebraska; Lloyd Carr, Michigan; Larry Coker, Miami (Fla.); Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State; Darrell Dickey, North Texas; Bill Doba, Washington State; Randy Edsall, Connecticut; Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M; Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee; Joe Glenn, Wyoming; Walt Harris, Stanford; Dan Hawkins, Colorado; Pat Hill, Fresno State; Terry Hoeppner, Indiana; Brady Hoke, Ball State; Brian Kelly, Central Michigan; Steve Kragthorpe, Tulsa; Mike Leach, Texas Tech; Rocky Long, New Mexico; Sonny Lubick, Colorado State; Dan McCarney, Iowa State; Les Miles, LSU; Shane Montgomery, Miami (Ohio); Joe Novak, Northern Illinois; Houston Nutt, Arkansas; Tom O’Brien, Boston College; George O’Leary, Central Florida; Gary Patterson, TCU; Chris Petersen, Boise State; Bobby Petrino, Louisville; Mark Richt, Georgia; Mike Riley, Oregon State; Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia; Bobby Ross, Army; Greg Schiano, Rutgers; Howard Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic; John L. Smith, Michigan State; Mark Snyder, Marshall; Frank Solich, Ohio; Steve Spurrier, South Carolina; Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee; Bob Stoops, Oklahoma; Jeff Tedford, California; Joe Tiller, Purdue; Dick Tomey, San Jose State; Jim Tressel, Ohio State; Tommy Tuberville, Auburn; Charlie Weis, Notre Dame; Tyrone Willingham, Washington; Ron Zook, Illinois.
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Buckeyes are preseason favorites in USA TODAY Top 25 Coaches' poll
Updated 8/4/2006 12:29 AM ET

Troy Smith, left, and Ted Ginn Jr. are two explosive weapons in the Ohio State offense.

By Mike Dodd, USA TODAY
For Ohio State University, the Maurice Clarett hangover is finally gone.
Four years and a series of public embarrassments after their last national football title, the Buckeyes are projected to return to the top of the college football world this fall.

Ohio State, behind the electrifying offensive talents of quarterback Troy Smith and wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr., is No. 1 in the USA TODAY Coaches' preseason poll released Friday, their first time in the top spot since the end of the 2002 season.

"We know the one in August isn't quite as important as all the other polls at the end," coach Jim Tressel says. "It's just another reminder of the respect people have for Ohio State."

If there is a symbol for the Buckeyes' bumpy road to glory, it is Smith, their 22-year-old senior quarterback from Cleveland.

A year ago he was preparing for the season knowing he would be sitting out the opening game for an NCAA infraction of accepting money with no guarantees of regaining his starting job.

"You have to be able to fall on your face to get up and complete an obstacle to appreciate it," says Smith, at the Big Ten media conference this week. "A year for any college athlete helps."

Today he is among the leading preseason candidates for the Heisman Trophy with boyhood friend Ginn, 21, a junior. Ginn, a wide receiver/kick return specialist, arguably could be the most electrifying player in the college game this fall. In two seasons he has six touchdowns on returns, six receiving and three rushing.

The two, who have known each other since they were about 7, played at Cleveland Glenville High School under Ginn's father, Ted Sr.

Smith last year went from a tantalizing prospect to a multifaceted quarterback who attacks defenses with his running and passing, drawing inevitable comparisons with Texas' Vince Young, who led the Longhorns to the national title.

"Consistency has become much better," Tressel says of his quarterback's development. "He showed us a lot back in '04 (when he went 4-1 as a starter), that he could make some plays. But would he do it consistently?

"I thought what '05 showed ... the back half of that season, there was a consistent quarterback."

Wake-up call

For many, the turning point came after a somewhat jittery performance in the 17-10 loss at Penn State on Oct. 8. Smith rushed a season-high 19 times for a total of 15 yards and threw for just 139 yards and an interception.

Ginn Sr., who phones Smith at least twice a week, provided a harsher than normal critique that time.

"It was just to wake him up," he says. "The fact that you've got to make decisions with your arm and mind and not with your shoes."

He tacked on a little lecture about studying more film and staying away from a Hollywood attitude.

"His sunglasses (all the time). Me and him have a thing about that. I want to see his eyes," Ginn Sr. says with a laugh.

Over the final seven games of the season, Smith threw for 225-plus yards six times and took off on foot no more than 13 times in a game. His film preparation — time in "the lab," as he says — is frequently cited by his teammates.

Smith's maturation off the field has been equally impressive. The two-game suspension from the 2004 Alamo Bowl and 2005 season opener for accepting $500 from a booster proved a turning point.

The sanction was levied two days before the Buckeyes left for that bowl game. He recalls watching the game from Ginn Sr.'s basement, which he describes as a shrine to the coach's former players.

"I have a key to Ginn Sr.'s home, that's where I stay a lot of times when I'm home," Smith says, adding the coach was out of town.

"I'm sitting in the basement, watching TV and looking at (reminders of) all the things we've done. I really got it into my head that there wouldn't be a situation like this again."

Seemingly never-ending problems

Since the Buckeyes completed their 14-0 season of 2002 with a Fiesta Bowl victory against Miami (Fla.) for their seventh national championship, the athletics department has been rocked by NCAA investigations of its football and basketball programs.

First Clarett sat out his sophomore season after being charged with falsifying a police report, then he claimed he received a number of improper benefits while playing at Ohio State. An NCAA investigation cleared the university.

Next, the NCAA and the university found violations in the men's and women's basketball programs.

An investigation resulted in the men's program in March receiving three years probation from the NCAA for seven violations, including a $6,000 payment to a recruit. Then late in 2004 came Smith's suspension.

In January 2005, athletics director Andy Geiger, declaring he was "just tired, just bone-weary," announced his retirement. New athletics director Gene Smith restructured the department.

Two months ago he hired Douglas Archie, whose background includes seven years with the NCAA in enforcement, as associate athletics director for compliance.

The past issues are resolved, but the indirect fallout continues.

A troubled Clarett faces an Aug. 14 trial date on robbery charges stemming from an incident Jan. 1 in Columbus.

This week, fired basketball coach Jim O'Brien was awarded $2.2 million plus interest from the university in a civil suit over his contract.

"The morass was a) never deep and b) never systemic," says Geiger, now living in Washington state. "The fundamentals were sound, and I think Gene (Smith) found that when he got there. I don't think there's been anything startling since that would say there's ongoing trouble."

Smith agrees but acknowledges a perception in some quarters that the football program had been out of control.

"We can think of programs that were run amok, and those incidents (at OSU) pale in comparison to programs that have run amok," he says.

In his first year, he says, the football team had 56 players with a grade-point average of 3.0 or better and "we had no serious behavioral issues off the field." (One player was arrested for driving under the influence.)

"You're going to have incidents. To sit here and say we're not is probably naive," Smith adds.

"The question is ultimately how you deal with them and how many you have."

A lot to look forward to this season

Throughout all the headlines, the football team largely continued its success. It went 11-2 in 2003 (finishing No. 4 in the USA TODAY Coaches' poll), slipped to 8-4 in 2004 (finishing No. 19) and rebounded to 10-2 and a No. 4 ranking last year, including a 34-20 victory against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

"A play here or there and they could have been national champion last year," Minnesota coach Glen Mason says.

The 2005 team, which lost to Texas by three points and at Penn State by a touchdown, had nine players drafted by the NFL, five in the first round.

This year's team will rely on the explosive offense that also features junior running back Antonio Pittman (1,331 yards last year) and a young defense that needs to replace nine starters (all in NFL camps this summer).

"Where there is some experience is up front" with senior defensive tackles Quinn Pitcock and David Patterson," Tressel says.

"A lot of time, if you're solid up front, that certainly helps the growth of people in the linebacker corps and on the back end."

Among the promising linebackers is junior transfer Larry Grant, the 2005 junior college player of the year at City College of San Francisco.

Asked what he noticed most about the secondary in spring drills, Smith had one word: speed. "I think we're a little bit faster," he says.

If the Buckeyes' goal of a national championship is to last until the trees change color in Columbus, the young defense will need to develop quickly. The second game of the season, Sept. 9, is at preseason No. 2 Texas.

Many of the seniors, Smith included, were in the program as redshirts their freshman year when the Buckeyes last won the national title.

"Some guys in some situations did the wrong thing, but every year we have a good record as a team, (the Clarett fallout) kind of diminishes," Pitcock says.

Smith says he watched the leaders on that 2002 team and he's ready to step into that role for the 2006 edition.

"A lot of things I was taking for granted. Coming in as a young guy, we won the national championship and I'm walking around with my ring on," he says.

"As you can see, I don't wear my rings at all now because all that work is done on the field. I'll worry about being glorified later. We've got work to be done."

Contributing: Steve Wieberg

Posted 8/4/2006 12:25 AM ET
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OHIO STATE TIMELINE

Highlights and lowlights of last 31/2 years for the Ohio State athletics program:

Jan. 3, 2003: First national football title since 1968.

July 29, 2003: Confirms the NCAA is investigating running back Maurice Clarett's claim that more than $10,000 in clothing, CDs, cash and stereo equipment were stolen in April from a car he borrowed from a local dealership.

Sept. 10, 2003: Clarett is suspended for the season. Athletics director Andy Geiger says Clarett got special benefits worth thousands from a family friend and repeatedly misled investigators.

Dec. 17, 2003: University committee finds no evidence to support allegations of academic misconduct by athletes, including Clarett.

June 8, 2004: Geiger fires basketball coach Jim O'Brien, saying he acknowledged giving player Aleksandar Radojevic money in violation of NCAA rules. O'Brien counters he was trying to help out a family in need and could not have influenced Radojevic, who was ruled ineligible for playing professionally and never played college ball.

Nov. 9, 2004: Clarett alleges in ESPN The Magazine that coach Jim Tressel or his staff arranged for him to get passing grades, cars and money for bogus summer jobs. Geiger denied the allegations.

Nov. 10, 2004: O'Brien sues for $3.5 million to $6 million, saying the firing violated his contract. OSU denies the claim.

Dec. 9, 2004: Announces it won't play in the postseason NCAA or National Invitation basketball tournaments, a step O'Brien says is unnecessary.

Dec. 28, 2004: Announces it will sanction a booster who gave $500 to quarterback Troy Smith for work Smith didn't do and suspends Smith from playing in the Alamo Bowl and the 2005 opener.

February 2005: Tells the NCAA about allegations that an orthodontist, also a booster, provided free dental work to women's basketball players.

Jan. 3, 2006: Clarett appears in court and is freed on $50,000 bond stemming from charges of robbing two people at gunpoint in an alley behind a bar.

Feb. 15, 2006: An Ohio Court of Claims judge rules O'Brien was improperly terminated without pay but says he did violate his contract by giving money to Radojevic.

March 10, 2006: The NCAA finds OSU liable for rules violations and orders repayment of basketball tournament revenue, tournament records erased from 1999-2002 and three years' probation.

Aug. 2, 2006: Appeals court rules OSU must pay O'Brien about $2.2 million plus interest for wrongly firing him.

Aug. 4, 2006: No. 1 in preseason football coaches poll, first time at top since Jan. 3, 2002.

Sources: USA TODAY research; Associated Press
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Upvote 0
OregonBuckeye said:
When was the last time the #1 and #2 ranked teams met in the regular season?
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1996 - Florida vs. Florida State. Here's the list, as far as the AP poll's #1 vs #2 in the regular season (it's happened 16 more times in Bowl games, including tOSU's 1969 Rose Bowl win over #2 USC and the 2003 Fiesta Bowl triumph over #1 Miami):

EDIT - Note added - in 2000 and 2001, Oklahoma and Nebraska met when they were #1 and #2 in the BCS (both times after the first week of the BCS rankings). But they were #1 and #3 in the AP in 2000, and #2 and #3 in the AP in 2001.



Nov. 30, 1996 — No. 2 Florida State 24, No. 1 Florida 21
Nov. 13, 1993 — No. 2 Notre Dame 31, No. 1 Florida State 24
Nov. 16, 1991 — No. 2 Miami 17, No. 1 Florida State 16
Sep. 16, 1989 — No. 1 Notre Dame 24, No. 2 Michigan 19
Nov. 26, 1988 — No. 1 Notre Dame 27, No. 2 Southern California 10
Nov. 21, 1987 — No. 2 Oklahoma 17, No. 1 Nebraska 7
Sep. 27, 1986 — No. 2 Miami 28, No. 1 Oklahoma 16
Oct. 19, 1985 — No. 1 Iowa 12, No. 2 Michigan 10
Sep. 26, 1981 — No. 1 Southern California 28, No. 2 Oklahoma 24
Nov. 25, 1971 — No. 1 Nebraska 35, No. 2 Oklahoma 31
Dec. 06, 1969 — No. 1 Texas 15, No. 2 Arkansas 14
Sep. 28, 1968 — No. 1 Purdue 37, No. 2 Notre Dame 22
Nov. 19, 1966 — No. 1 Notre Dame 10, No. 2 Michigan State 10, tie
Oct. 12, 1963 — No. 2 Texas 28, No. 1 Oklahoma 7
Nov. 09, 1946 — No. 1 Army 0, No. 2 Notre Dame 0, tie
Dec. 01, 1945 — No. 1 Army 32, No. 2 Navy 13
Nov. 10, 1945 — No. 1 Army 48, No. 2 Notre Dame 0
Dec. 02, 1944 — No. 1 Army 23, No. 2 Navy 7
Nov. 20, 1943 — No. 1 Notre Dame 14, No. 2 Iowa Pre-Flight 13
Oct. 09, 1943 — No. 1 Notre Dame 35, No. 2 Michigan 12
 
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