ENGLEWOOD, N.J.

Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior, is a captain on both the football and basketball teams. As a safety, he holds more than a dozen Division I scholarship offers in football and said he has narrowed his list to Stanford, NC State, Maryland, UConn and North Carolina.

He will also serve as a hall proctor for the second year in a row, and this year he opted to join the Peer Leadership Program. Oh, and he maintains a 3.7 grade point average, too.

Read the full story here.

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**ON THE NEED TO WIN A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN FOOTBALL

“It would be nice. It would certainly be nice if we won a national championship. I think every conference would love to do that.”

**ON POSSIBLY ADDING A 9TH TEAM FOR FOOTBALL

“We talk about it and we recognize the fact that we’d love to have a balanced schedule and the way to do that obviously is to add a ninth football member. But we don’t want to solve one problem and possibly create another, because now you’re dividing revenues nine ways…If someone did in fact bring quality to our conference and solve that problem and carry their own weight, then we would obviously do it. But until that time comes we’re not going to do something just for one reason.”

**ON THE UPCOMING BOWL NEGOTIATIONS AFTER THE 2010 SEASON

“We need to protect our second-place team in the year that they go to our No. 2 poll outside of the automatic tie-in to the BCS. We’ve got a number of options on the table. We’ve talked to the Notre Dame AD about these. He and I are on the same page. We can’t get into particulars at this point, but we have things in mind…

“No matter how things unfold in regard to this current four-year cycle, we’re going to be in a position where we have opportunitiess for our people. Our three criteria are location, destination and opponents.”

Texas was second in the poll released Friday, followed by Oklahoma, Southern California, Alabama, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Penn State, LSU and Mississippi.

Texas had four first-place votes, and Oklahoma and Southern California each had one.

Four Big 12 teams made the poll.

The Associated Press preseason Top 25 will be released Saturday, Aug. 22.

(Photo courtesy Miami Herald/ Story AP)

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**Florida

**Utah

**USC

**Texas

Here’s how the AP and Coaches’ polls played out:

FINAL AP POLL

1. Florida 13-1 (48 votes)

2. Utah 13-0 (16)

3. USC 12-1 (1)

4. Texas 12-1 -

5. Oklahoma 12 -2 -

FINAL USA TODAY COACHES’ POLL

1. Florida 13-1 (60)

2. USC 12-2

3. Texas 12-1

4. Utah 13-0 (1)

5. Oklahoma 12-2

You have to love Utah coach Kyle Whittingham voting his team No. 1 in the Coaches’ poll even though the American Football Coaches Association has agreed to have all its voters place the winner of the BCS national championship game first on their ballots.

Utah did receive one first-place vote in the coaches’ poll and finished fourth.

Whittingham isn’t worried about losing his vote.

“That’s their call,” he said. “I have to look out for my players.”

WE NEED A PLAYOFF SYSTEM

I’m with President-elect Barack Obama. We need a playoff system.

How sweet would an eight-team tournament be with all of the above teams, along with Alabama (12-2), Penn State (11-2) and somebody else?

Obama endorsed a playoff system during an interview with Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes” back in November.

“If you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there’s no clear decisive winner. We should be creating a playoff system,” he said.

According to Obama’s proposed system, eight teams would play over three rounds to settle the national champion.

“It would add three extra weeks to the season,” he said at the conclusion of a wide-ranging interview. “You could trim back on the regular season. I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

After last night’s game Obama amended his comments somewhat.

“I think a football playoff system makes sense….I’ve got to pick and choose my battles,” he said. “I probably am going to be spending more time focusing on creating three million more jobs.”

]]> http://www.zagsblog.com/2009/01/09/whos-no-1/feed/ 1 http://www.zagsblog.com/2008/12/07/bowl-lineup-falling-into-place/ http://www.zagsblog.com/2008/12/07/bowl-lineup-falling-into-place/#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:22:11 +0000 Adam Zagoria http://www.zagsblog.com/?p=8358 With No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 2 Florida both winning in blowouts Saturday night, the two teams appear headed to a showdown in the BCS National Championship Game Jan. 8 at Dolphin Stadium.

Oklahoma crushed No. 20 Missouri, 62-21, in the Big 12 title game in Kansas City, while No. 4 Florida handled No. 1 and previously unbeaten Alabama, 31-20, in the SEC title game in Atlanta.

Here is a preview of how the major bowls are expected to play out:

BCS Title Game: Oklahoma vs. Florida, Jan. 8, Dolphin Stadium, Miami

Rose Bowl: Penn State vs. USC, Jan. 1, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif.

Orange Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Va. Tech, Jan. 1, Dolphin Stadium

Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Utah, Jan. 2, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans

Fiesta Bowl: Texas vs. Ohio State, Jan. 5, Univ. of Phoenix, Glendale, Ariz.

OTHER BOWLS:

Meineke Car Care Bowl: West Virginia vs. North Carolina, Dec. 27, Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C.

Papajohns.com Bowl: Rutgers vs. N.C. State, Dec. 29, Legion Field, Birmingham, Ala.

Sun Bowl: Pitt vs. Oregon State or Cal, Dec. 31, Sun Bowl Stadium, El Paso, Texas

International Bowl: Buffalo vs. UConn, Jan. 3, Rogers Stadium, Toronto*

Turner Gill’s Buffalo team hammered previously unbeaten Ball State, 42-24, in the MAC championship game Friday night in Detroit. Somewhere David Letterman is not laughing.

Ken Hoffman, Executive Director of the MOtor City and International Bowls, had said Thursday that a matchup between an unbeaten Ball State, No. 12 in the BCS standings, and a Rutgers team on a six-game winning streak would be appealing in Detroit.

Rutgers (7-5) crushed Louisville, 63-14, Thursday night on ESPN behind seven TD passes from QB Mike Teel.

“Speechless, man,” Gill said on ESPN2. “I gotta thank the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave us favor again tonight and I gotta thank him for that, and our kids played hard.

“One of the greatest [moments] because of where this program was at. To come here in three years, and these guys did it. I’m proud of them, I’m proud of them.”

Now it appears that Buffalo will play in the International Bowl, potentially against UConn, while Rutgers could play in the Sun Bowl Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas, the Meineke Car Care Bowl Dec. 27 in Charlotte or the Papajohns.com Bowl Dec. 29 in Birmingham, Ala.

With Big East champion Cincinnati likely headed to the Orange Bowl, the Sun Bowl chooses next from the Big East teams, followed by the Meineke. The Sun Bowl opponent could be Oregon State or California.

Rutgers will finish tied for second in the Big East.

The Scarlet Knights should know where they’re headed after Saturday’s tilts between Pittsburgh at UConn and South Florida at West Virginia.

If Pitt (8-3) wins, the Panthers will likely head to the Sun Bowl, meaning the Meineke would choose from between Rutgers and West Virginia. Since North Carolina is already in that bowl, West Virginia could get the call because the Tar Heels hammered the Knights, 44-12, earlier this year.

That could send Rutgers to Birmingham against either N.C. State or Troy.

Meantime, how about Turner Gill? Think this guy might be a good fit for that Syracuse job?

A three-way tie between Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech atop the Big 12 South standings forced the league to use its fifth tiebreaker, best BCS rating, to determine which team will play Missouri on Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.

The Sooners (11-1), who lost to Texas 45-35 in October, barely edged the Longhorns. Oklahoma has a .9351 BCS average. Texas’ BCS average is .9223.

Oklahoma was a point ahead of Texas in the USA Today coaches’ poll and six points behind the Longhorns in the Harris Interactive. The computer ratings preferred the Sooners and that made the difference.

So the Longhorns will be watching two teams they beat play for the conference title, hoping that a Missouri upset could work in their favor.

Oklahoma is second in the BCS standings behind unbeaten Alabama. Texas is third and Florida is fourth.

The winner of the Southeastern Conference championship game between the Crimson Tide and Gators is virtually guaranteed a spot in the BCS national title game on Jan. 8 in Miami.

Oklahoma would earn the other spot by beating Missouri. If the Sooners lose, it could open the door for Texas to go to the national title game, despite not playing for its conference championship, or Southern California.

The Trojans are fifth in the BCS standings with a game to go at rival UCLA.

The Sooners were behind Texas last week in the BCS standings, but just barely. The Sooners actually led the Longhorns in the polls, but a week ago the computers had Texas ahead of Oklahoma.

After the Sooners’ 61-41 victory Saturday night against Oklahoma State — 14th in the latest standings — and the Longhorns’ 49-9 win over lowly Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night, the polls tightened but the computers flipped.

The strength of the Big 12 South led to this new BCS controversy, with the top three teams in the conference each finishing 11-1.

After beating Oklahoma and jumping to No. 1 in the polls, Texas (11-1) lost at Texas Tech 39-33 on Nov. 1. The Red Raiders (11-1), No. 2 at the time, then lost at Oklahoma 65-21 on Nov. 22.

The lopsided loss dropped Texas Tech to seventh in Sunday’s standings.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

WHO’S UP?

Mark Sanchez – USC QB threw four TDs when Trojans routed Ohio State — again — on a national stage on Saturday night. This is the third straight time Ohio State has been embarrassed in the big game, including two flops in the national title game.

Michael Crabtree – Texas Tech wideout had 8 catches for 164 yards receiving and scored three touchdowns in the #12 Red Raiders win over SMU.

Javon Ringer — MIchigan STate RB rushed for a career-high 282 yards and two TDs in 43 carries as he helped lead the 2-1 Spartans to a 17-0 win against Florida Atlantic University.

Max Hall — BYU QB tied a school record with 7 touchdown passes (six in the first half) as the #18 Cougars routed UCLA 59-0.

The SEC - Five of the top 10 teams in the AP poll are from the SEC — No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Florida, No. 6 Louisiana State, No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Auburn. That’s the first time that many teams from that conference have made the Top 10. Can any of these teams match up with the high-powered USC offense? Probably not, especially after No. 3 Georgia and No. 10 Auburn combined for 17 points in their two wins Saturday.

WHO’S DOWN?

Charlie Weis — “I never saw it coming,” was Weis’ quote after getting run over on the sideline by Irish defensive end John Ryan during the Irish victory over Michigan, causing Weis to suffer a torn ACL and MCL. He is expected to have surgery this week.

The Big Ten — Michigan lost to Notre Dame and Ohio State was embarrassed on national TV. How over-hyped is this conference?

The PAC-10 – UCLA, Stanford, Arizona State and Arizona all lost to Mountain West teams. UCLA was beaten 59-0 by BYU, the program’s worst loss in decades.

The Big East — Yes, South Florida overcame a 20-3 deficit to beat Kansas 37-34 to move to No. 12 in the poll from No. 19.

“This was not only a big win for the University of South Florida, it was a big win for the Big East Conference,” Nick Carparelli Jr., the Big East associate commissioner, told The New York Times.

And yes, West Virginia (1-1) is No. 21 and can improve the conference’s stock Thursday against Colorado.

But other than those two schools and undefeated UConn (3-0), the rest of the league is 3-8. Rutgers has been outscored 68-19 in losses to Fresno State and North Carolina. Syracuse was whupped 55-13 by Penn State on national TV and you have to wonder how long Greg Robinson will keep his job.