ASU football garners votes in final AP Poll of season

A day after Arizona State announced a contract extension for head coach Herm Edwards, the Sun Devils got another bit of evidence that he has the football program on the upward swing.

ASU, which went 8-5 and closed the year with three wins in a row, received 12 points worth of votes in the final Associated Press Top 25 Poll of the 2019 season, which was released Monday night after LSU’s national title win over Clemson.

That would rank Edwards’ team 32nd in the final poll of the season.

In the Pac-12, the Sun Devils are behind ranked teams in Oregon (No. 5) and Utah (No. 16), plus unranked Washington (39 points) and USC (16 points).

LSU finished No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the third time in school history, with Clemson No. 2 and Ohio State No. 3.

The Tigers (15-0) beat Clemson 42-25 in the national championship game Monday night and then received all 62 first-place votes from the media panel in the season’s final top 25.

LSU was No. 1 for the final eight weeks of the season and set a record by beating seven teams ranked in the top 10 at the time of the game. Miami in 1987 and Alabama in 2015 each beat five teams ranked in the top 10 at the time of their games.

LSU also did it impressively: The Tigers beat teams that were ranked 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8 in the final Top 25 by an average margin of 20 points.

The Tigers also won AP titles in 2007 and 1958.

Georgia, LSU’s Southeastern Conference rival, was fourth and Pac-12 champion Oregon was fifth. Florida was sixth and Oklahoma, which made the playoff, was seventh.

Alabama finished eighth, its lowest final ranking since 2010, giving the SEC four of the top 10. It’s the fifth time one conference has had four teams in the final top 10, and fourth for the SEC.

No. 9 Penn State and No. 10 Minnesota gave the Big Ten three teams in the top 10.

Navy finished No. 20 and Air Force was ranked No. 22, marking the first time two service academies were in the final AP poll of the season since 1958.

Navy was one of four American Athletic Conference schools in the final rankings, a new high for the conference. Memphis was 17th, Cincinnati 21st and UCF 24th.

Final 2019 AP Top 25 Poll

1. LSU (15-0) – 1,550 points
2. Clemson (14-1) – 1,487
3. Ohio State (13-1) – 1,426
4. Georgia (12-2) – 1,336
5. Oregon (12-2) – 1,249
6. Florida (11-2) – 1,211
7.Oklahoma (12-2) – 1,179
8. Alabama (11-2) – 1,159
9. Penn State (11-2) – 1,038
10. Minnesota (11-2) – 952
11. Wisconsin (10-4) – 883
12. Notre Dame (11-2) – 879
13. Baylor (11-3) – 827
14. Auburn (9-4) – 726
15. Iowa (10-3) – 699
16. Utah (11-3) – 543
17. Memphis (12-2) – 528
18. Michigan (9-4) – 468
19. Appalachian State (13-1) – 466
20. Navy (11-2) – 415
21 .Cincinnati (11-3) – 343
22. Air Force (11-2) – 209
23. Boise State (12-2) – 188
24. UCF (10-3) – 78
25. Texas (8-5) – 69

Others receiving votes:
Texas A&M 54, Florida Atlantic 46, Washington 39, Virginia 28, USC 16, San Diego State 13, Arizona State 12, SMU 10, Tennessee 8, California 6, Louisiana Tech 2, Kentucky 2, Kansas State 2, Louisiana-Lafayette 2

The Associated Press contributed to this story

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