1) USC- the knock on them is that they have lost 3 pac10 games over
the last two years that they "shouldn't have". well thats true, but
the same could be said for other top programs. On defense they have a
gazillion people who will play in the nfl, and on offense I think
they'll be able to run the football a little and the passing game will
be semi-decent and that'll be enough to make them the best team in the
country.
2) Ohio State- don't laugh. They will likely lose in Los
Angeles(just because every team not named stanford has lost in the
coliseum in the last few thousand games there), but after that look at
the schedule. it's runnable. YSU, Ohio, Troy, Minnesota, and
Northwestern are five locks right there. Michigan, Penn State, and
Purdue are in columbus and neither of those teams is close on talent
this year to OSU. So really you just have three road games to navigate
to have a great shot to end up with one loss and playing for a
national title- wisconsin, Michigan State, Illinois. My guess is one
of those 3 teams trip them up and they go 10-2..........but it's
possible they run it after the USC game. They're clearly the class of
the bigten this year.
3) Oklahoma- they're going to be able to throw the ball(and hell run
the ball....they're just going to be good on offense period) and the
schedule is favorable. They'll be a guaranteed 5-0 going into the
texas game(they play 5 cupcakes) and they avoid missouri out in the
north(unless they meet in the cc game). They'll blow out kansas in
norman. Their road opponents after the texas game consist of Kansas
State, A&M, and Okstate. If they had to go to Texas Tech again I'd be
worried for them......I really see OU going 11-1. Ok, let's switch OU
and OHio State.....OU is #2, tOSU #3.
4) Missouri- if they can get by illinois(and it's in missouri), this
team can go 11-1 as well very easily. @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
sucks no doubt, but
after that what is there? They've got one of the best qb's in the
nation and their schedule is favorable. They have four road games all
year, and three of their road opponents are nebraska, baylor, and i-
state. So if they can beat illinois at home, 11-1 and a meeting
against OU in the big12 title game set up nicely........of course the
wildcard in all of this is texas. Texas' schedule isn't as favorable
as OU's or Missouri's, simply because they have to go to texas tech
and kansas.
5) West Virginia- are they the 5th best team in the nation? No. So
why are they ranked here.........villanova, east carolina, colorado,
marshall, rutgers, syracuse, auburn, connecticut, cincinatti,
louisville, pittsburgh, south florida. But hey, give wvu credit in
that they have two credible ooc games(one on the road, one at home).
But unless they do something incredibly stupid(and likely twice) in
the bigleast, they've got an automatic bcs bid. I don't think there
is another legitimate top 25 team in the bigleast this year. @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
could be a dangerous game for WVU.
6) Clemson- Clemson is the program that "should but doesn't". nobody
can seem to figure out why they perrenially lose more games than they
"should". Great facilities, great fan base, good recruiting, not so
tough conference of late, etc.....and yet how in the world do they go
out and get blown out by VT last year despite dominating both sides of
the line of scrimmage? How did they manage to lose to a crappy team
like maryland? Maybe the answer is that Clemson just isn't ever very
good. I mean really, how long has it been since the last really good
clemson team? I can't even remember.....but this year may be "the
year". who knows. I think they'll beat bama in the opener. Then
after that the big test is in tallahassee. Wake and UVA are also
potential road losses. But seeing as how nobody else in the acc ever
seems to want to step up and take control, I don't see why clemson
cant do it this year. 10-2 would be a very good year for a program
that never wins 10 games in the regular season, but 11-1 isn't out of
the question if they can go 3-1 in very close games for example.
7) Georgia- Just like WVU probably isn't the 5th best team in the
country, Georgia probably isn't the 7th best team in the country. So
why are they ranked 7th in my preseason poll.......they have 8 or 9
losable games. Nobody in the country has that many losable games. @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
carolina, @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ASU, Saban, Tennessee, @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
the worlds largest
outdoor cocktail party, in lexington, @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Then a potential secc
game in atlanta. Hell that's not a schedule- that's a freaking death
march. Georgia will be favored in all of those games except for
perhaps baton rouge depending on how LSU is doing, but so many of
those games are eminently losable, even for one of the best two or
three teams in the country. There is just no way any team gets
through that schedule with less than 2 losses.
and thats all I am ranking......here are reasons why some other teams
didn't make my preseason poll:
Florida- 5 out of the last 6 years they haven't been even close to a
top 10 level team. Thats a pretty strong track record right there.
And unless they drastically improve their secondary, they wont be this
year either. As for tebow, as I've pointed out many times last year,
the "dual threat" ability of his is vastly overrated against good sec
defenses. In fact against Georgia, Auburn, and LSU he averaged less
than 2 yards per carry, was sacked a ton, and his "running" was
actually a hindrance to their offense. He's good, but his numbers
last year were imbalanced......
LSU- they arent in my preseason poll because of a tough schedule and
les miles' poor decision to kick perriloux off the team. You're in a
conference with two bigtime qb's at georgia and Florida, and you play
both those teams. They can win the secw because the secw doesnt look
to be as good as the east this year, but they arent good enough at qb
to make a real mnc run again.
Illinois- wait......I have to give a reason for not putting Illinois
in my poll? nah......they weren't particularly good last year in a
"great" year(for them)
Wisconsin- soft schedule will help them a lot to go 9-3 or so, but
they give too many carries to their fat tailback and dont have enough
playmakers on offense.
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