Michigan Rated No. 1 in First Poll of Season

Michigan’s football team is picking up where Michigan’s basketball team left off--No. 1 in the country.

Five months after winning the national basketball championship, the Wolverines are the nation’s top college football team in the Associated Press’ Top 25 poll.

Michigan received 23 first-place votes and 1,439 points to edge defending national champion Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish, who will play at Ann Arbor on Sept. 16, were ranked No. 1 on 20 ballots and received 1,378 points.

The only other teams receiving first-place votes were Nebraska (10), Miami (4), USC (1) and Florida State (2).

Nebraska is ranked third, followed by Miami, USC, Florida State, Louisiana State, Auburn, UCLA and Arkansas.

Two of Michigan’s top three quarterbacks were recently declared ineligible, but the Wolverines still have senior Michael Taylor, who started the first nine games last season before suffering a broken collarbone.

ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 POLL The Top 25 college football teams, with first-place votes in parentheses, 1988 record, total points based on 25-24-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 and ranking in the final 1988 season poll:

No Team Record Pts Pvs 1 Michigan (23) 9-2-1 1,439 4 2 NotreDame(20) 12-0-0 1,378 1 3 Nebraska (10) 11-2-0 1,333 10 4 Miami, Fla. (4) 11-1-0 1,322 2 5 USC (1) 10-2-0 1,288 7 6 Florida St. (2) 11-1-0 1,202 3 7 LSU 8-4-0 1,059 19 8 Auburn 10-2-0 1,007 8 9 UCLA 10-2-0 996 6 10 Arkansas 10-2-0 884 12 11 Penn St. 5-6-0 746 -- 12 Clemson 10-2-0 695 9 13 Syracuse 10-2-0 644 13 14 Colorado 8-4-0 630 -- 15 Oklahoma 9-3-0 620 14 16 Alabama 9-3-0 479 17 17 West Virginia 11-1-0 457 5 18 Arizona 7-4-0 319 -- 19 Brigham Young 9-4-0 306 -- 20 Pittsburgh 6-5-0 282 -- 21 Houston 9-3-0 281 18 22 Illinois 6-5-1 277 -- 23 Iowa 6-4-3 250 -- 24 N. Carolina St. 8-3-1 238 -- 25 Ohio St. 4-6-1 200 1/2 --

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Georgia 181, Texas A&M; 162, Washington 128, Michigan St. 100, Florida 84, Texas 66, Virginia 52, Tennessee 50 1/2, Wyoming 46, Indiana 38, Baylor 32, Oklahoma St. 31, S. Mississippi 31, Louisville 24, Washington St. 20, South Carolina 18, Kentucky 16, Stanford 15, Oregon 14, Fresno St. 12, Army 8, Rutgers 8, California 7, Arizona St. 6, Duke 6, Texas-El Paso 6, Hawaii 3, North Carolina 2, Western Michigan 1.