SEC puts three teams in the top five of the final AP Poll and Alabama isn’t one of them
If you could have gotten 500/1 odds on Auburn winning the BCS Championship last January, what do you think the odds of Alabama not finishing in the top five were?
After the Sugar Bowl defeat to Oklahoma, the Crimson Tide slotted in at seventh in the final AP Poll. That's three spots ahead of Central Florida, who beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.
That means Alabama is ranked fourth among SEC teams too. After Florida State is the unanimous No. 1 after its win over Auburn in Monday night's BCS Championship Game, the Tigers are No. 2 and South Carolina is No. 4 after beating Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl.
The third SEC team in the top five is Missouri at No. 5. Those Tigers beat former Big 12 foe Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl.
Michigan State and UCF are the only one-loss teams in the top 10. The Spartans are third after beating Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Stanford fell all the way to 11th while Ohio State fell to 12th after its loss to Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
Here are the complete rankings with the pre-bowl rankings in parenthesis. Does anything jump out to you as a severe injustice? Given that Alabama and Oklahoma (as well as Missouri and South Carolina) finished with the same record, it only makes sense to give the edge to the head-to-head winner. And just for fun, we'll add the preseason ranking of each team in brackets as well. 10 teams that finished the season in the AP Top 25 didn't start there.
1. Florida State, 14-0 (1) [11]
2. Auburn, 12-2 (2) [NR]
3. Michigan State, 13-1 (4) [NR]
4. South Carolina, 11-2 (8) [6]
5. Missouri, 12-2 (9) [NR]
6. Oklahoma, 11-2 (11) [16]
7. Alabama, 11-2 (3) [1]
8. Clemson, 11-2 (12) [8]
9. Oregon, 11-2 (10) [3]
10. Central Florida, 12-1 (15) [NR]
11. Stanford, 11-3 (5) [4]
12. Ohio State, 12-2 (7) [2]
13. Baylor, 11-2 (6) [NR]
14. LSU, 10-3 (14) [12]
15. Louisville, 12-1 (18) [9]
16. UCLA, 10-3 (17) [21]
17. Oklahoma State, 10-3 (13) [13]
18. Texas A&M, 9-4 (20) [7]
19. USC, 10-4 (NR) [24]
20. Notre Dame, 9-4 (25) [14]
21. Arizona State, 10-4 (16) [NR]
22. Wisconsin, 9-4 (19) [23]
23. Duke, 10-4 (22) [NR]
24. Vanderbilt, 9-4 (NR) [NR]
25. Washington, 9-4 (NR) [NR]
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is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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