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FINAL COACHES POLL GOES PUBLIC Texas coach Mack Brown has been calling Southern California the no.1 team all season and it wasn’t just talk. Brown voted USC first in the final USA Today coaches’ poll. The ballots were made public yesterday, a first for the coaches’ poll, which is used by the Bowl Championship Series in its standings formula. The BCS had urged the coaches to remove the secrecy in their poll after the 2004 season, when Texas made a late surge in the polls to earn a Rose Bowl bid over California. The coaches decided to release only their final ballots.

Brown had his Texas team no. 2, behind USC. The Trojans and Longhorns will play for the national title in the Rose Bowl on January 4. USC coach Pete Carroll is not on the 62-member voting panel. Twenty coaches voted for their own teams, with none straying too far from the consensus. Among the notables, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano gave the Scarlet Knights (7-4) their only vote, putting them 25th on his ballot.

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis had his team fourth, two spots ahead of Oregon (10-1).The Fighting Irish (9-2) were ranked no. 6. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti put the Ducks fourth and Notre Dame ninth. Oregon finished no. 5 in the final regular season poll, but Notre Dame earned a bid to the BCS and Oregon did not.

Penn State was no. 3 on all but two ballots. Texas A &M coach Dennis Franchione had Notre Dame third and the Nittany Lions fourth. Arkansas coach Houston Nutt had Auburn third, just ahead of Penn State. Auburn was no. 7 in the poll. Tigers coach Tommy Tuberville had his team fourth.

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BUZZER-BEATER KEEPS DUKE ATOP AP POLL Duke and Texas were on top of the Associated Press’s basketball poll again yesterday, keeping this weekend’s 1 vs. 2 matchup intact. A familiar name returned near the bottom of the poll as North Carolina jumped in at 23rd following its upset win at Kentucky.

Duke stayed unbeaten with a 77-75 home win over Virginia Tech on a 40-foot buzzer beater by Sean Dockery on Sunday night. The close win cost the Blue Devils eight first-place votes from last week, but they were on top of 53 ballots and had 1,767 points. Texas, which beat Texas-Pan American and Texas-Arlington by an average of 33 points last week, had nine first-place votes – three more than last week – and 1,699 points from the national media panel.

Connecticut stayed third, just six points behind Texas. Villanova, which beat then-no. 5 Oklahoma 85-74 on Saturday, stayed fourth.

FOOTBALL

BROWNS’ EDWARDS DONE FOR SEASON WITH TORN ACL Rookie wide receiver Braylon Edwards will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury, yet another setback for one of Cleveland’s first-round draft picks. Edwards, the no. 3 overall selection in the draft, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while trying to make a leaping catch in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to Jacksonville.

– Associated Press