DALLAS (FWAA) Four times Ohio State has been engraved on the
Grantland Rice Trophy. And, if all goes according to the preseason
prognostications of the pollsters of the Grantland Rice Super 16, the
Buckeyes will take home their fifth FWAA national championship trophy in
January.
Ohio State is ranked No. 1 in the Football Writers Association of
America's 2006 preseason poll. The Buckeyes, who won the 2002 Grantland Rice
Trophy in the first season of the FWAA poll, found their way to the top
spot in a most unusual way. Despite getting half as many first-place
votes as No. 2 Notre Dame, the Buckeyes edged out the Fighting Irish at
No. 1 by seven poll points. Notre Dame was voted No. 1 by eight of the
16 pollsters, while Ohio State garnered just four first-place votes.
In the four-year history of the poll, only once has the preseason
favorite gone on to win the FWAA's national title, in 2004, when USC was
top-ranked both at the beginning at end of the season.
Texas, the 2005 Grantland Rice Trophy winner, is ranked 3rd, followed
by Auburn and USC. West Virginia, at No. 6, picked up a pair of
first-place votes. Auburn and USC each have one of the remaining No. 1
votes.
LSU and Florida give the SEC three of the top eight teams in the
rankings and, overall, the SEC has the most schools ranked with four.
Georgia is No. 16. The Big Ten, led by Ohio State, has three ranked
teams, including No. 12 Michigan and No. 15 Iowa.
Two ACC teams found their way into the poll, but only Florida State
is in the top 10 at No. 10. Miami, which opens the season hosting the 'Noles,
is No. 13. Oklahoma is the other Big 12 school in the rankings, at No.
14. Eleventh-ranked Louisville is the lone representative from the Big
East.
The complete final 2006 preseason poll 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 another ranking until
October 9, but they will make their ballots public. For the first time,
those ballots will be unveiled online each Monday 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.