BAMAPHIN 22
FinHeaven Elite
No joke. Rutgers is ranked.
The Scarlet Knights, long a college football laughingstock, moved Sunday into The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 30 years.
No. 23 Rutgers (4-0), led by tailback Ray Rice, the fourth-leading rusher in the nation, is off to its best start since 1980 after beating Howard 56-7 on Saturday.
"I'm not going to downplay it. It is significant considering where we started," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. "It shows we're making progress in the right direction."
The Scarlet Knights were one of three new teams at the bottom of the new media poll, which was mostly unchanged at the top.
Ohio State is still No. 1 with 59 of a possible 65 first-place votes. No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 Southern California and No. 4 West Virginia each received two first-place votes.
Auburn had 1,513 points and USC had 1,491. The Tigers lead over the Trojans grew nines points from last week.
No. 5 is Florida, followed by Michigan, Texas, Louisville, LSU and Georgia. The only change in the Top 10 was No. 9 LSU flip-flopping with No. 10 Georgia.
Throughout the 1990s, the Scarlet Knights were among the worst teams in Division I-A, routinely getting blown out by their Big East rivals.
Last year, in Schiano's fifth season at the state university of New Jersey, Rutgers had its first winning year since 1992. The Knights went 7-5 and played in the Insight Bowl, their first bowl game since 1978.
The Knights have benefited from an early weak schedule -- three I-A opponents with a combined 4-8 record and a I-AA team -- but of course it wasn't long ago Rutgers couldn't beat anybody.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/09/24/bc.fbc.t25.collegefbpol.ap/index.html
The Scarlet Knights, long a college football laughingstock, moved Sunday into The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 30 years.
No. 23 Rutgers (4-0), led by tailback Ray Rice, the fourth-leading rusher in the nation, is off to its best start since 1980 after beating Howard 56-7 on Saturday.
"I'm not going to downplay it. It is significant considering where we started," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. "It shows we're making progress in the right direction."
The Scarlet Knights were one of three new teams at the bottom of the new media poll, which was mostly unchanged at the top.
Ohio State is still No. 1 with 59 of a possible 65 first-place votes. No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 Southern California and No. 4 West Virginia each received two first-place votes.
Auburn had 1,513 points and USC had 1,491. The Tigers lead over the Trojans grew nines points from last week.
No. 5 is Florida, followed by Michigan, Texas, Louisville, LSU and Georgia. The only change in the Top 10 was No. 9 LSU flip-flopping with No. 10 Georgia.
Throughout the 1990s, the Scarlet Knights were among the worst teams in Division I-A, routinely getting blown out by their Big East rivals.
Last year, in Schiano's fifth season at the state university of New Jersey, Rutgers had its first winning year since 1992. The Knights went 7-5 and played in the Insight Bowl, their first bowl game since 1978.
The Knights have benefited from an early weak schedule -- three I-A opponents with a combined 4-8 record and a I-AA team -- but of course it wasn't long ago Rutgers couldn't beat anybody.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/09/24/bc.fbc.t25.collegefbpol.ap/index.html