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August 21, 2003 For Immediate Release Contact: Ted Gangi 214-823-7992 |
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| Sooners top FWAA preseason poll for second straight season | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OKLAHOMA RANKED
NO. 1 IN 2003 GRANTLAND RICE SUPER 16 POLL |
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DALLAS (FWAA) – For the second straight season, the Oklahoma Sooners are the preseason favorite in the Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll as voted by the 16 pollsters of the Football Writers Association of America. Oklahoma is among three Big 12 teams in the Super 16. The poll made its debut last season and will resume in the regular season on Mon., Oct 13 and each subsequent Monday through December 8. Following the conclusion of the Bowl Championship Series, a final poll, to be released on Jan. 5 in New Orleans, will be used to determine the 2003 Grantland Rice Trophy winner. The FWAA has presented its national championship trophy, named in honor of the legendary sportswriter, each year since 1954. This is the second year that a season-long poll will be concurrent with the award. Oklahoma has won the Grantland Rice Trophy four times, last in 2000. Each of the 16 voters, representing four regions, not only will cast a ballot each week, but give a brief synopsis of his ballot. Unlike other college football polls, the FWAA is making each of its pollsters' ballots public, along with the weekly synopsis. • Click here to see how and why each pollster voted Following is the complete 2003 Preseason Grantland Rice Super 16 Poll:
Oklahoma received ten first-place votes on its way to its preseason No. 1 ranking. Defending national champion Ohio State received foUr No. 1 votes and Kansas State tallied the remaining two top votes.
"We certainly appreciate the respect our program has received, but our team is very much aware that championships are never won in August," said Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops. "A high ranking at this time of year simply signifies that the writers value what we've accomplished here and see promise in this team. We appreciate that and are very good about keeping it in perspective. We remain focused on winning championships and that's a long process." Rounding out the Top 10 are Miami, Auburn, Kansas State, Texas, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Southern California, and Georgia. The SEC – with Auburn, Georgia, LSU, and Tennessee in the preseason poll – leads all conferences with four teams in the Super 16. Three ACC teams are among the the remaining ranked teams, which include Pittsburgh (No. 11), N.C. State (No. 12), Florida State (No. 13) and Maryland (No. 16). 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. 1. 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. For further information contact Steve Richardson, Executive Director of the FWAA (972-713-6198, tiger@sportswriters.net) or Ted Gangi, FWAA webmaster (214-823-7992, webmaster@sportswriters.net). Related Links:
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