2007 LSU

The newspaper is getting pretty close to running this year's rankings, so it's time I start picking up the pace a little bit on all the categories. Here's the last of the five present-day rankings, and the one everyone knows, last season's final Associated Press poll.

In case you missed it, LSU won the national championship.

1. LSU
2. Georgia
3. Southern California
4. Missouri
5. Ohio State
6. West Virginia
7. Kansas
8. Oklahoma
9. Virginia Tech
10. Texas
(tie) Boston College
12. Tennessee
13. Florida
14. Brigham Young
15. Auburn
16. Arizona State
17. Cincinnati
18. Michigan
19. Hawaii
20. Illinois
21. Clemson
22. Texas Tech
23. Oregon
24. Wisconsin
25. Oregon State

In a personal note, I'm on the road for a few days, but I do have some news on the book(s) front which I'll be sharing with you all in the near future. Yep, another project, and this one has the potential to be the biggest yet.

1934 Stanford

The photo to the right (and yeah, it's small, I know, and courtesy of the Rose Bowl), is from the 1934 Stanford team, known as the "Vow Boys." Although Stanford lost to Alabama in the Rose Bowl, 29-13, it returned a year later to defeat Southern Methodist, 7-0.

The NCAA released the national Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores yesterday, and after sorting through every team's report, here were the top 25 teams from the 2006-2007 academic year (FYI, as far as I know, this is the only place you'll find this):

Grades (APR scores)
1. Stanford 986
2. Navy 979
3. Duke 977
(tie) Rutgers 977
5. Air Force 976
6. Rice 975
7. Boston College 972
8. Northwestern 969
(tie) Notre Dame 969
(tie) Miami 969
11. California 967
12. Georgia 965
(tie) Miami (Ohio) 965
14. Penn State 964
(tie) Wake Forest 964
16. Florida 962
(tie) Army 962
18. Texas Christian 959
(tie) Vanderbilt 959
20. Southern Miss 958
21. Syracuse 955
(tie) Memphis 955
23. Florida State 954
24. Auburn 953
(tie) Boise State 953