Preseason, Schmeeseason

So, the first USA Today PreSeason Poll came out today. I would like to preface this article saying that I think that preseason polls are a bunch of crap. They're like bikinis - they show some, but not what is important - how the teams perform on the field. I personally think that there should be any polls until several weeks into the season. But, as long as the media puts the polls out there, it gives us something to talk about.

Big surprise that USC is number one, right? Well, I wouldn't want to ever be ranked PreSeason #1. In the USA Today poll, only 3 times have the preseason #1 actually went on to win a national championship. USC started first and finished there in 2004. Florida State did the same in 1993 and '99. Those are the only instances a preseason No. 1 became national champ. (Article here...). LSU is #2, followed by Florida, Texas and Michigan to round out the top 5. Let's take a look at how the different conferences stack up.



SEC - 6 top 25 teams - the most of any conference. Actually, all are in the top 20 - impressive!
LSU (#2)
Florida (#3)
Georgia (#13)
Auburn (#14)
Tennessee (#15)
Arkansas (#20)

Big 10
Michigan (#5)
Wisconsin (#7)
Ohio State (#10)
Penn State (#18)

Big 12
Texas (#4)
Oklahoma (#8)
Nebraska (#19)
Texas A&M (#25)

Pac 10
USC (#1)
California (#12)
UCLA (#17)

Big East
West Virginia (#6)
Louisville (#11)
Rutgers (#16)

ACC
Virginia Tech (#9)
Florida State (#21)

WAC
Boise State (#23)
Hawaii (#24)

Mountain West
TCU (#22) - Mountain West

In summary, from most to least. For the tiebreakers where conferences had the same number of teams in the top 25, I averaged the rankings and took the lowest score.
#1 - SEC (6)
#2 - Big 10 (4) - tiebreaker average ranking - 10
#3 - Big 12 (4) - tiebreaker average ranking - 14
#4 - Pac 10 (3) - tiebreaker average ranking - 10
#5 - Big East (3) - tiebreaker average ranking - 11
#6 - ACC (2) - tiebreaker average ranking - 15
#7 - WAC (2) - tiebreaker average ranking - 23.5
#8 - Mountain West (1)

Who would have thought that the Big East would have as many preseason ranked teams as the Pac 10? Or that the WAC would have as many preseason ranked teams as the ACC? This always begs the argument, which is the best conference? Top to bottom, most would agree that the SEC is the best conference. The Pac 10 once again showed that they have one strong team up top, but the rest is not much. The interesting ones for me this year is to see how the Big 10 and Big 12 compare. Both have 4 preseason top teams and lots of potential.

It should be an interesting season - I'll be analyzing the rankings and conferences from time to time throughout the season. As a Texas fan and Big 12 fan, I long for the days of 4 top 10 Big 12 teams (Texas, OU, Nebraska, K-State, and sometimes Colorado). I'm also hoping that OU and Texas are both 5-0 going into the Red River Shootout. Texas needs to get past TCU and K-state (both at home), and OU needs to get past Miami(FL) (at home), and both should be able to do it. There's nothing better than a Red River Shootout with 2 undefeated top 10 teams. More to come later...