Evening star., 1941-10-14
Has Big Margin
Over Texas and
Duke E|evens
Fordhom, Navy Garner
Fourth and Seventh
Rotings for East
BY BILL BONI,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

BY BILL BONI,
Associated Press Sports Writer
NEW YORK. Oct. 14.-Minnesota
starts new football campaign just
where it finished the last one-as
No. team in the Associated Press
gridiron ranking poll.
The Golden Gophers. who SO far
have made two successful defenses
of this mythical national champion
ship. were made top choice by 66 of
the 119 sports experts in the first of
the weekly surveys of 1941. On 81
of the ballots they we're placed
either first or second, and they
polled l08l points, awarded on a
basis of 10 for first, 9 for second, 8
for third and so forth.
The Gophers' only serious COM
petition came from the outstanding
teams of two other sectors-the
Texas Longhorns. who got second
place with 934 points on the strength
of one-sided victories over Colorado.
Louisiana State and Oklahoma, and
Dukes Blue Devils, whose major ac-
complishment to date is q three
touchdown victory over Tennessee.
Middle West in Saddle.
The first 10. composed entirely of
all-winning teams, is dominated
just as it was a year ago at this
time, by the Middle West In addi-
ton to Minnesota. there are the
Gophers' chief rivals for the con-
ference title - Northwestern. fifth
place; Michigan, sixth. and Ohio
State, 1Oth-as we'll as Notre Dame.
which has won its first three games
under Frank Leahy, its new head
coach.
Fordham, winner of two intersec-
tional games. is the East's top-rank-
ing representative, at fourth place,
with high-scoring but untested Navy
seventh. Santa Clara, only un-
beaten and united major eleven left
on the Pacific Coast, rounds out the
first 10 at ninth place.
Wildcats Play Wolverines.
Biggest game in the country this
Saturday. as the poll bears out, will
be the clash at Evanston, Ill. of
Northwestern and Michigan. first
of the seasons dogights among the
Big Tens ranking powers. With the
possible exception OF Navy, which
tackles Cornell, No. l team in the
poll year ago. and Santa Clara.
which plays Michigan State, none
of the others appears to be threat
ened.
Minnesota should have an easy
afternoon against subpar Pitt:
Texas, in its first Southwest Confer
ence game, plays Arkansas. appar-
emily the weak sister: Duke meets
Colgate, already Debated by Dart
mouth; Fordham should be a strong
choice over West Virginia; Notre
Dame should have little more than
workout with Carnegie Tech, and
Ohio State, off that shellacking of
Southern California 10 days ago.
shouldn't have much trouble with
Purdue.
Upsetters in Second Ten.
The two teams that brought about
last Saturdays major upsets had
to be content with places in the
second rank. Rice. for its 1919 lick
ing OF Tulane, wound up in 18th
place, and Oregon State, which
ended the 12-game winning streak
OF Stanford's Rose Bowl champions.
got 10th place and no higher be-
cause of its early-season loss to
Southern Cal.
The standing Of the teams (first-
place votes in parentheses, scoring
on lO-s-S-7-6, etc, basis:
Team Points Team p.,v.
!. Minn. tesj o I'osi s ssNi Mich q, Points a4a
:. Texas (30) a34 = Nayy IA ass
3. Duke u4) s0l5 3. N. Dame ASK
4. Fordham 50s5 aS Clara ~ "4oS
D. .Nw'ernD 436 10. Ohio S. IL 503
second l0-11. Penn. 17..5: - Rice
10Y; II; Clemson ID. 1Os: IA. Texas A
s stase NJ s. s. - Nebraska; 81: is: Oregon
GeTolIt. Al: l9, Mississippi State. 2s: 90.
Also ran-s-southern Methodist. Dart
Ho HRuoqespe. II: Cornell 10; Temple, s;
Georeia, 4: Texas Tech, 3; Baylor and
'AianoVa' : each; Missouri, /.