Florida State Breaks SEC Run as Final No. 1 in AP Poll

(AP) Florida State breaks SEC run as final No. 1 in AP
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
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 (1993 and ’99) ties it for ninth-most with rival Florida and Texas.

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. 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.

No. 8 Clemson, Oregon and UCF finished out the top 10.

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.