may be attribute ModelAdmin.ordering can work for you , it was in docs/ref/contrib/admin/index.txt
attribute:: ModelAdmin.ordering Set ordering to spcify how lists of objects should be ordered in the Django admin views. This should be a list or tuple in the same format as a models's django.db.models.Options.ordering parameter If this isn't provided, the Django admin will use the models's default ordering -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django users" group. To post to this group, send email to django-users@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to django-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-users?hl=en.