What the fuck are you talking about??? The AP writers were under no contract in 2003 or any other year. They're the writers and they've always been free to vote their conscience. In fact, they voted USC #1 both before and after Bowl Season, exactly as they were supposed to do based on historical precedent and common sense. Only the UPI (the coaches) were under any contractual obligation and that stupidly designed contract actually ended up forcing those coaches to vote against their conscience by reversing their last legitimate vote.Vito Corleone wrote:In 2003 everyone started the season and ended the season under the same set of rules. But because the AP didn't like how things turned out they broke their contract.
Had those same coaches been allowed to vote in that final poll instead of being backed into a corner whereby they were forced to honor a flawed contract by rubber stamping LSU there would've been no shared title that year. USC would've retained both the AP and UPI shares as the consensus #1 choice and nobody in their right mind can even begin to dispute this.
NO consensus #1 team who won their bowl game (much less in the dominating fashion by which USC beat Michigan) ever failed to retain the #1 ranking in the season ending poll.