Auburn is the college football national champion. That was obvious Monday night after the Tigers defeated Oregon 22-19, in the BCS National Championship game. The voters have now confirmed that, easily placing Auburn No. 1 in the final rankings. Auburn (14-0) got 56 of 59 first-place. TCU (13-0) got the other three.
Here are the complete final AP top 25 rankings:
1 Auburn (56) 14-0
2 TCU (3) 13-0
3 Oregon 12-1
4 Stanford 12-1
5 Ohio State 12-1
6 Oklahoma 12-2
7 Wisconsin 11-2
8 LSU 11-2 1,051
9 Boise State 12-1
10 Alabama 10-3
11 Nevada 13-1
12 Arkansas 10-3
13 Oklahoma State 11-2
14 Michigan State 11-2
15 Mississippi State 9-4
16 Virginia Tech 11-3
17 Florida State 10-4
18 Missouri 10-3
19 Texas A&M 9-4
20 Nebraska 10-4
21 UCF 11-3
22 South Carolina 9-5
23 Maryland 9-4 1
24 Tulsa 10-3
25 North Carolina State 9-4
Notice what is missing in there? Not a single Big East Conference team in the top 25, the only conference with an automatic BCS bid not to have a team ranked in the final poll. West Virginia (16 votes) and Connecticut (eight votes) were honorable mentions. Syracuse University did not receive any votes in the final poll despite its victory over Kansas State in the Pinstripe Bowl.
The Big East, of course, will be getting a boost when TCU, No. 2 in the final rankings, leaves the Mountain West to join the conference in 2012.