Oklahoma Is No. 1 Pick in Preseason Wire Polls

Oklahoma is the preseason favorite of both wire services to win college football’s national championship.

In the Associated Press poll released Saturday, the Sooners outdistanced Auburn, last year’s preseason pick, receiving 23 of 60 first-place votes and 1,090 of a possible 1,200 points from a national panel of sportswriters and sportscasters.

In the United Press International poll, also released Saturday, Oklahoma received 14 first-place votes and 564 points from a board of coaches. Auburn is second with eight first-place votes and 434 points.

Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer said: “We’ve all got to start somewhere. There are just a lot of unknowns about our team. Quarterback and defensive secondary are major concerns. Our front line people are good on defense, and I think we’ll be pretty good on the offensive line.”

USC and UCLA were ranked in the top 20 by both wire services. UPI rated the Trojans fifth, with two first-place votes and the Bruins 15th. USC was sixth in the AP list, with two first-place votes, while UCLA was 20th.

Washington was the only other Pacific 10 team to be ranked. The Huskies were placed sixth by UPI, with five first-place votes, and 12th by the AP, with two first-place votes.

Southern Methodist University and Florida, two teams currently on probation, were in the AP’s top five--the Mustangs third and the Gators fifth. Both teams are ineligible for their league championships, nor can they go to a bowl game this season.

Teams on probation are ineligible for UPI’s rankings and national championship consideration.

AP POLL

Team Record Pts 1984 1. Oklahoma (23) 9-2-1 1,090 6 2. Auburn (13) 9-4-0 1,027 14 3. SMU (13) 10-2-0 924 8 4. Iowa (7) 8-4-1 837 16 5. Florida (4) 9-1-1 788 3 6. USC 9-3-0 754 10 7. Maryland (3) 9-3-0 738 12 8. Ohio St. 9-3-0 709 13 9. Nebraska 10-2-0 676 4 10. BYU (1) 13-0-0 608 1 11. Illinois (2) 7-4-0 599 -- 12. Washington(2) 11-1-0 578 2 13. LSU 8-3-1 447 15 14. Notre Dame 7-5-0 426 -- 15. Arkansas 7-4-1 378 -- 16. Oklahoma St. 10-2-0 319 7 17. South Carolina 10-2-0 309 11 18. Penn St. 6-5-0 218 -- 19. Florida St. 7-3-2 195 17 20. UCLA 9-3-0 175 9

UPI POLL

Team Record Pts 1984 1. Oklahoma (14) 9-2-1 564 6 2. Auburn (8) 9-4-0 434 14 3. Ohio St. (1) 9-3-0 412 12 4. Nebraska 10-3-1 395 3 5. USC (2) 9-3-0 362 9 6. Washing. (5) 11-1-0 358 2 7. BYU (9) 13-0-0 354 1 8. Iowa (1) 8-4-1 352 15 9. Maryland (1) 9-3-0 282 11 10. Illinois 7-4-0 213 -- 11. LSU 8-3-1 168 16 12. Notre Dame 7-5-0 159 -- 13. Florida St. (1) 7-3-2 141 19 14. Oklahoma St. 10-2-0 135 5 15. UCLA 9-3-0 132 10 16. Arkansas 7-4-1 84 -- 17. Penn St. 6-5-0 80 -- 18. South Carolina 10-2-0 79 13 19. Georgia 7-4-1 48 -- 20. Boston Coll. 10-2-0 37 4

Florida and SMU, which are on probation, are ineligible for consideration.