FSU sweeps AP ballots; OSU 12th

Associated Press

PASADENA, CALIF.

Move over SEC, Florida State is back on top.

Florida State finished No. 1 in the final Associated Press college football poll, ending the Southeastern Conference’s record streak of seven national championships.

The Seminoles received all 60 first-place votes from the media panel after beating Auburn 34-31 in the BCS championship game on Monday night in the Rose Bowl.

Florida State’s third AP national title (1992 and ’99) ties it for ninth-most with rival Florida and Texas. The Seminoles finished 10th last year.

The Tigers (12-2) finished second in their extraordinary turnaround season, but for the first time since Texas in 2005, the Southeastern Conference is not on top of the final rankings.

Michigan State was third, followed by South Carolina and Missouri. Oklahoma finished sixth and Alabama was No. 7, ending the Crimson Tide’s streak of top-five rankings at 47. So the SEC will have to settle for having four teams in the top seven.

The SEC has seven ranked teams overall with No. 14 LSU, No. 18 Texas A&M and No. 24 Vanderbilt.

The SEC went 6-3 this bowl season, a better winning percentage than any other BCS automatic qualifying conference.

The Pac-12 was second with six ranked teams, though Oregon was the only one in the top 10, thanks in part to the conference’s nine-game league schedule.

No. 11 Stanford, No. 12 Ohio State and No. 13 Baylor finished outside the top 10 after spending much of the season in it.

No. 15 Louisville was followed by UCLA and Oklahoma State.

Rivals Southern California and Notre Dame were, 19th and 20th respectively.

The final five were Arizona State, Wisconsin, Duke, Vanderbilt and Washington.

Of the 25 teams to begin the season ranked, 16 finished that way.

The highest ranked teams in the preseason to finish unranked were Georgia (No. 5) and Florida (No. 10).

Three preseason ranked teams finished with losing records (Florida, TCU and Northwestern).