Alabama Sits Atop Both Polls, Vanderbilt Finishes In Them For Second Time Ever

Alabama is the unanimous No. 1 team after its BCS National Championship Game blowout of Notre Dame. Unlike in some recent years, no voters rebelled against the title game outcome and gave first place votes to other teams. No one in the AP Poll broke ranks and tried to split the title between Bama and undefeated Ohio State. The Crimson Tide stands alone atop the sport.

The SEC as a whole went into bowl season with six teams in the top 10 and none in the rest of the polls. It finished with just five in the top 10, but it did have seven total. Some of the ranks are one off of each other, with the team a slot lower in the AP Poll. The reason is because the Coaches' Poll couldn't rank Ohio State (AP No. 3) due to its bowl ban.

Conference runner up Georgia landed second in the order at fourth in the Coaches Poll and fifth in the AP. Texas A&M tied UGA for fifth in the AP and was a close sixth in the Coaches. South Carolina was eighth and Florida ninth in the AP Poll, while the Gamecocks were seventh and the Gators tenth in the Coaches' Poll. This is only the second time in school history that South Carolina has finished a top ten team after doing it previously last year. LSU dropped out of the top ten following its narrow bowl loss to land 14th in the AP and 12th in the Coaches.

The seventh and final team to make the rankings was 9-4 Vanderbilt, which finished 23rd in the AP Poll and 20th in the Coaches' Poll. It's only the second time in school history that the Commodores have finished the year ranked; the other was 1948.