Tigers Ranked in FWAA's Super 16 Poll

BATON ROUGE — A little more than two weeks before the kickoff of the 2002 season, the LSU football team was ranked 16th in the initial Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll which is conducted by the Football Writers Association of America.

A 16-member committee representing each region of the country was used to rank the teams.

The poll makes its debut this season and will resume in the regular season on Mon., Sept. 30, and each subsequent Monday through Dec. 9. Following the conclusion of the Bowl Championship Series, a final poll, to be released on Saturday, Jan. 4, in Tempe, Ariz., will be used to determine the 2002 Grantland Rice Trophy winner.

Grantland Rice, dean of American sportswriters, was born November 1, 1880 and died July 12, 1954. Tim Cohane, sports editor of Look magazine from 1944 to 1965, founded the Grantland Rice Trophy to honor the annual college football national champion as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.

The FWAA has presented its national championship trophy, named in honor of the legendary sportswriter, each year since 1954. This season, however, marks the first time a season-long poll will be concurrent with the award.

Other awards sponsored by the FWAA are All-America honors; the Bronko Nagurski Trophy to the nation’s top defensive player; the Outland Trophy to the nation’s top interior lineman; the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year; and the Bert McGrane Award to a member of the FWAA for outstanding contributions to the organization.

In addition to the weekly ranking, the FWAA will name a national Division I-A Team of the Week during the course of the season, which will also be voted on by the Grantland Rice pollsters. The Team of the Week selections will begin on Mon., Sept. 2.

Both the Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll and the FWAA Team of the Week will be released through the FWAA’s official website, www.footballwriters.com, part of www.sportswriters.net.

Earlier this month, the Tigers were ranked 13th in the preseason ESPN/USA TODAY Coaches’ Poll and 14th in the AP’s Top 25. The team has also appeared in every major publication’s preseason poll this season (see below).

LSU was one of four Southeastern Conference schools to be ranked in the initial poll. Tennessee sits fifth, Florida in eighth and Georgia was tabbed ninth. The SEC tied with the Big 12 for most teams in the poll as the two major conferences combined to seize eight of the 16 positions in the initial rankings.

Following is the complete preseason Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll:

School [1st Place]
1.Oklahoma [6]
2.Miami (Fla.) [4]
3.Texas [4]
4. Florida State [1]
5.Tennessee [1]
6. Colorado
7. Washington State
8. Florida
9. Georgia
10. Washington
11. Nebraska
12. Ohio State
13. Michigan
14. Oregon
15. Michigan State
16. LSU

Also receiving votes: Louisville 30, Marshall 17, Virginia Tech 15, Oregon State 13, Maryland 8, USC 3, UCLA 2, Boston College 1, N.C. State 1, South Carolina 1, Texas A&M 1, Utah 1, Wisconsin 1.

First-place votes: Oklahoma (6: Mark Blaudschun, Dennis Dodd, Herb Gould, Vahe Gregorian, Ron Higgins, Lenn Robbins); Miami (4: Stewart Mandel, Bob Moran, Darryl Richards, Joe Schad); Texas (4: Shelly Anderson, Gregg Doyel, Ted Miller, Keith Whitmire); Florida State (1: Randy Holtz); Tennessee (1: Jay Posner).

By conference: Big 12 (4), SEC (4), Big Ten (3); Pac-10 (3); ACC (1); Big East (1).

— information for this release compiled from the Univ. of Florida’s web site and the FWAA.

Summary of LSU’s position in preseason rankings by major publications: