A New Old Order : After 1-2 Finish in AP Poll Last Season, Miami, Washington Start ’92 That Way

Miami and Washington, which finished 1-2 in last season’s Associated Press college football poll, are starting 1992 the same way.

Miami received 40 first-place votes and 1,511 points in voting by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Washington, which won the USA Today-CNN coaches’ poll last season, received 12 first-place votes and 1,453 points in the AP survey. Miami is ranked first in this season’s coaches’ poll, Washington is second.

The Hurricanes have won four national championships in the last nine years. “It’s a little bit of an extra burden, but we’re used to it by now,” Coach Dennis Erickson said. “Everybody is always ready to play us, whether we’re No. 1 or not.”

Miami can be the first back-to-back AP champion since Alabama in 1978-79 and the first preseason pick to win the national title since Oklahoma in 1985.

Notre Dame is third in the preseason poll, followed by Florida, Florida State, Michigan, Texas A&M;, Penn State, Alabama and Syracuse.

Nebraska is 11th, trailed by Colorado, Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma, Iowa, Stanford, UCLA, Ohio State, California, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, Brigham Young and Texas.

For the second consecutive year, three teams from Florida start the season in the top five. No other state has had three teams ranked so high at the same time.