Alabama finishes atop AP Top 25 poll for 11th time
Alabama was the unanimous No. 1 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll of the season after its 52-24 drubbing of Ohio State in the College Football Playoff championship game Monday night.
The Crimson Tide (13-0) were followed by the Buckeyes (7-1), with Clemson (10-2), Texas A&M (9-1) and Notre Dame (10-2) rounding out the top five.
Alabama now has finished in the No. 1 spot 11 times in its storied history. The Crimson Tide have won six of the past 12 national championships.
After the game, Alabama quarterback Mac Jones said his team deserves the highest accolades.
“We set this as a goal, to potentially be the greatest team to ever play,” Jones said. “I think we made a valid statement in winning the national championship tonight.”
The rest of the top 10 was led by Oklahoma (9-2), followed by Georgia (8-2), Cincinnati (9-1), Iowa State (9-3) and Northwestern (7-2).
The Southeastern Conference wound up with three of the top seven teams in the nation — Alabama, Texas A&M and Georgia. The No. 4 spot was the highest final ranking for the Aggies since 1939.
The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference each had four teams in the Top 25.
Cincinnati led the group of eight non-Power Five conference teams to make the Top 25, followed by independent BYU (No. 11), Coastal Carolina (No. 14) and Louisiana (No. 15) of the Sun Belt Conference, independent Liberty (No. 17), Mid-American Conference schools Ball State (No. 23) and Buffalo (No. 25), and No. 24 San Jose State of the Mountain West Conference.
–Field Level Media
