Bulldogs finish with Top 5 rankings in both polls
The Georgia Bulldogs finished with a Top 5 ranking in both The Associated Press and coaches’ final polls released early Tuesday. But the Bulldogs remained behind Notre Dame, which lost to Alabama 42-14 in the BCS national championship game Monday night.
Georgia (12-2) finished in a tie for fifth with Texas A&M in the AP poll, which is a compilation of media votes. Notre Dame (12-1) was fourth. The Bulldogs were fourth in the USA Today coaches’ poll, one spot behind the Fighting Irish.
This represents the third time under coach Mark Richt the Bulldogs’ have closed out a season with a Top 5 ranking. They were No. 2 in 2007 and No. 3 in 2002. It’s Georgia’s sixth Top 10 final ranking under Richt, including 2003 (7), 2004 (7), 2005 (10) and 2008 (10). It’s the 18th time overall UGA has finished ranked among the AP top 10.
Alabama secured its third BCS title in the last four years Monday night in Miami to finish No. 1. Oregon (12-1) was second in both polls and Ohio State was ranked third in the AP, despite being on NCAA probation and ineligible for postseason play or conference championships.
Following are the complete polls:
ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25
Record Pts Pv
1. Alabama (59) 13-1 1,475 2
2. Oregon 12-1 1,358 5
3. Ohio St. 12-0 1,302 3
4. Notre Dame 12-1 1,288 1
5. Georgia 12-2 1,230 6
5. Texas A&M 11-2 1,230 10
7. Stanford 12-2 1,169 8
8. South Carolina 11-2 1,038 11
9. Florida 11-2 933 4
10. Florida St. 12-2 922 13
11. Clemson 11-2 889 14
12. Kansas St. 11-2 871 7
13. Louisville 11-2 781 22
14. LSU 10-3 756 9
15. Oklahoma 10-3 615 12
16. Utah St. 11-2 456 18
17. Northwestern 10-3 443 21
18. Boise St. 11-2 419 20
19. Texas 9-4 358 NR
20. Oregon St. 9-4 303 15
21. San Jose St. 11-2 243 24
22. N. Illinois 12-2 227 16
23. Vanderbilt 9-4 180 NR
24. Michigan 8-5 147 19
25. Nebraska 10-4 119 23
Others receiving votes: Baylor 95, Penn St. 90, Cincinnati 78, Oklahoma St. 42, Tulsa 34, UCLA 31, Arkansas St. 28, TCU 9, UCF 9, Wisconsin 6, N. Dakota St. 1.
USA TODAY COACHES’ POLL
Record Pts Pvs
1. Alabama (56) 13-1 1,400 2
2. Oregon 12-1 1,322 3
3. Notre Dame 12-1 1,253 1
4. Georgia 12-2 1,213 5
5. Texas A&M 11-2 1,171 9
6. Stanford 12-2 1,167 8
7. South Carolina 11-2 1,064 10
8. Florida State 12-2 942 12
9. Clemson 11-2 916 13
10. Florida 11-2 886 4
11. Kansas State 11-2 841 6
12. LSU 10-3 775 7
13. Louisville 11-2 772 18
14. Boise State 11-2 633 15
15. Oklahoma 10-3 600 11
16. Northwestern 10-3 580 17
17. Utah State 11-2 444 20
18. Texas 9-4 398 25
19. Oregon State 9-4 366 14
20. Vanderbilt 9-4 248 NR
21. San Jose State 11-2 244 24
22. Cincinnati 10-3 186 NR
23. Nebraska 10-4 175 21
24. Northern Illinois 12-2 156 16
25. Tulsa 11-3 110 NR
Others receiving votes: Michigan 101; UCLA 75; Baylor 52; Oklahoma State 36; Wisconsin 18; Central Florida 15; Arkansas State 13; Arizona State 10; Rutgers 9; Kent State 5; Louisiana Tech 2; Arizona 1; Ohio 1.
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368 comments Add your comment
AltamahaDawg
January 9th, 2013
1:40 pm
So your point being that despite all that advantage, Georgia was still 5 yards away from besting them? Thanks.
Here are the facts.
January 9th, 2013
1:44 pm
South Crolina football program has hired three MNC coaches. Paul Dietzal, Lou Holtz and Spurrier. The best of them is SS and he only has ONE SEC title to show and nothi g else has U of SC EVER WON of football fame.
SC is a joke and has attended how many bowl games? 20? 23?
SC will never win big. history proves that fact.
Poor fact checker
January 9th, 2013
1:46 pm
Two facts that he overlooked:
1 U of A is in the state of Alabama
2 The U of Georgia is a far superior s-c-h-o-o-l.
OolteawhDawg
January 9th, 2013
1:54 pm
Would this be the right time to let ND players and fans know that the team that steamrolled them is the 3RD best offense in the SEC?
Flyer
January 9th, 2013
1:56 pm
@Here are the facts.– South Carolina has not won any SEC Titles. They did win the SEC East 2 years ago, but lost in the Title game to Auburn. The total number of bowl games for SC is 18 (6-12). However they have won 6 out of their last 10 bowl appearances. They have also defeated UGA the last three years.
Independent
January 9th, 2013
2:54 pm
OolteawhDawg: Where does that SC Offense that hung 35-7 on you rank? Where does UGA offense that put a whopping 7 on South Carolina Rank?
Independent
January 9th, 2013
3:00 pm
OolteawhDawg: I don’t think UGA has much of an answer for that 3rd best offense, if my memory serves me correctly. 350 yards rushing Bama had?
AltamahaDawg
January 9th, 2013
3:36 pm
Wow!. Independant, your need to slam Georgia is so great that you simply ignored the point of OolteawhDawg’s post?
Just insult Georgia. You don’t need to pretend that your random hating is making some point.
1969 Graduate
January 9th, 2013
9:46 pm
Congratulations to Alabama, Georgia, and the SEC.
Anybody that ranks Notre Dame ahead of Georgia or Texas A&M has something bad wrong with their understanding of things. Things like football. Things like reality. I wouldn’t advise them to place bets with rent money.
Ole Miss and Vanderbilt might beat Notre Dame. Georgia, A&M, South Carolina certainly would.
One of my favorite bowl games was the Ole Miss game. Those guys had a wonderful time whipping up on the team Notre Dame barely beat in triple overtime, and that was with a lot of luck.
Notre Dame is not a top five team in the SEC, and not a top 10 team by any standard.
Go, Dawgs!
godawgs82
January 9th, 2013
10:39 pm
ND was over rated going into the NC and are still over rated by being ranked ahead of UGA.
ND should not be in the top 10…..ridiculous!
basspro2150
January 10th, 2013
9:30 am
Whats the difference between the Notre Dame Irish and Cheerios? Only one belongs in a bowl.
Independent
January 10th, 2013
9:41 am
1969 Graduate: What are you congratulating Georgia for, when it was Alabama winning the National Championship? I really don’t understand why your congratulating your team, when another team won the national champioship…….I believe you are riding the Tides coattails
basspro2150
January 10th, 2013
9:46 am
We would never ride on the Tides coattails. we were 5 sec. and 4 yards short of going to the Championship. Just very proud of our team. Don’t understand why you just can’t accept that.
Independent
January 10th, 2013
9:46 am
1969 Graduate: my favorite bowl games were seeing Florida and LSU lose, to dare I say a Big East & ACC Team, and Carolina needing a last second touchdown to beat a BIG 10 Mighigan team. But Alabama did beat ND, so congratulations Georgia, Vandy, Ole MIss, Miss State, Arkansas and Tenn, foir being in the same conference. That is the company Georgia is in, you fools are just to blind to see it
Independent
January 10th, 2013
10:02 am
Basspro2150: You would never ride the Tides coattails? Yet you are because you chant SEC, SEC, SEC with so much pride, and are blind to the fact that the SEC is dominate, in spite of you, and not because of you! That is the truth, the SEC is dominate but not becasue of The Georiga BullDawgs…….
AltamahaDawg
January 10th, 2013
2:18 pm
At it for the third day huh Independant? Thats some rich you life you got going on there.
And BTW, we congratulate other SEC teams in spite of fans like you, not because of you.
rational dawg fan
January 11th, 2013
3:48 am
I love my dawgs, but come on… How much worse was the beatin nd took than ours in columbia? Both games were over in 5 minutes… And yes I think we’d have destroyed the irish… But an ugly loss is an ugly loss, just a lil more humiliating in january… I’m proud of the boys for responding well to ours and look forward to next year… Keep up the work til signing day, hope the young d and am get us to 4-0 and we’ll have a chance to say who gives a *:-# to the the polls like bama this yr
DawgFan
January 11th, 2013
6:57 pm
How about next year Sec just plays an end of season tournament? Top 8 teams get in. We call it the Southern National Championship. None of the other teams matter anyway. Tattoo State and the overrated Irish would have been lucky to have winning records in the Sec. Maybe Oregon could play with an elite team.