Five Thoughts on Preseason Top 25
The Coaches released their preseason top 25 this week with very little surprises at the top. Defending champ Alabama is a near consensus number one receiving 55 of 59 first place votes, with THE Ohio State University receiving the other 4. Here are a few things that stood out:
1. Boise State at number five is too low. Sure it’s high for a WAC team, but most other preseason polls featured the Broncos at 2 or 3. They return 21 starters from an undefeated team. If they were from any BCS conference (even the bad ones) this fact would be enough to garner a few #1 votes and possibly the #1 ranking. So I have to disagree with the notion that Boise is getting a lot of respect.
2. The Big (L)East’s highest ranked team is Pittsburgh at 15. Apparently the coaches don’t think too highly of the conference. The Big 12 had three teams ranked ahead of Pitt, and the Big Ten had four. Overall, the Big East placed only 2 teams in the poll, tied with the Pac 10 for least among BCS conferences. This would’ve been worse had the voters been allowed to vote for USC, which would’ve surely been ranked and bumped #25 WVU out. If they are to gain more respect, someone other than the Mountaineers need to win, or at least appear competitive in a BCS game.
3. The Big Ten is receiving a lot of credit from the pollsters this year. This resurgence of sorts is largely due to the Conference’s top four teams all coming off impressive bowl wins last season. All four (Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Penn State) are all ranked in the top 14. No surprises with the first three, but the coaches ranked Penn State significantly higher then they have been in most other polls. They are showing a lot of confidence in JoePa’s ability to overcome key personell losses.
4. Georgia and Oregon are the most overrated in the poll. I have a theory that Georgia is the most overrated program in college football. I might expand on that later in another post, but for now I’ll just point out that they are starting a freshman quarterback in the toughest conference and coming off an unipressive 8-4 season. Oregon lost it’s star quarterback and its starting running back faced legal troubles this offseason. The Ducks might not be the best team in their state let alone their conference.
5. Stanford is the most underrated. In a recent player poll conducted by ESPN, Pac 10 players chose Stanford as the favorite to win the conference to the tune of 44%. The Cardinal may have the dumbest mascot in college sports, but they also may have the best quarterback in Andrew Luck. They will score points… a lot of them.
