Wednesday, January 10, 2001

Johnson City, Tenn. -- The East Tennessee State football team finished 123rd among all Division I football programs in the final Sagarin ratings published following the collegiate bowl season. The Oklahoma Sooners ranked first among the 241 Division I schools.

The Bucs were the 24th ranked I-AA team and finished ahead of 15 I-A schools, including Hawaii, Wake Forest, Southern Methodist, Army and Duke.

The I-AA national champion, Georgia Southern, finished 52nd in the final ratings, ahead of perennial national powers Michigan State, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Penn State.

The Sagarin ratings were devised by Jeff Sagarin, a 1970 MIT mathematics graduate. The rating is a numerical measure of the teams strength based on performance and strength of schedule.

ETSU finished the 2000 season at 6-5 with a 55-7 win against Charleston Southern on November 11. It was the Bucs fourth winning season in the past five years.