Pre-pre-preseason 2010 rankings, w/ depth charts: http://bit.ly/78CGyQ. Bama #1, Boise #2, Oregon #3, TCU #6, USC #13, OreSt #17, VaTech #18
Pre-pre-preseason 2010 rankings, w/ depth charts: http://bit.ly/78CGyQ. Bama #1, Boise #2, Oregon #3, TCU #6, USC #13, OreSt #17, VaTech #18
What’s next, 2011 Bracketology before the 2010 Final Four? *shakes head*
Ducks fans must feel they’ve just lived down a bad dream: staring at a Bronco behind all dang year… and look! They’re staring at the same derriere next year.
Voters may be more open-minded, but I don’t see “smarter”.
It may just be a hunch, but I have a feeling Boise will be closer to preseason No. 22 than No. 2.
If Boise states beats TCU, and yet they aren’t in the preseason Top 11 next year (which would make them closer to #2 than to #22), I will eat my arm.
If they lose to TCU, I suppose it’s possible they could miss out on the preseason Top 11, but I really, really don’t think so. Remember, they were preseason #14 this year. And next year, they return EVERY STARTER from, at worst, a 13-1 team that’ll finish somewhere in the #7-9 range with a loss to TCU. (They’re #6 now, with a solid wall of 2- and 3-loss teams behind ’em. They might get passed by a couple of the 2-loss teams, like the Oregon-Ohio State winner — at least if it’s Ohio State, ahem — and the Georgia Tech-Iowa winner, and maybe Penn State if it beats LSU, but I can’t see them finishing behind any three-loss teams.)
So, we’re talking about a Top 10 team that returns EVERYBODY, while a bunch of the other Top 10 teams will lose key players… and you’re saying the pollsters will rank them closer to #22 than to #2 (i.e., lower than #12)?? How do you figure?? If you think the pollsters are so horribly biased against the mid-majors that they’ll saddle this Boise team, despite their transparently obvious worthiness for a Top 10 if not Top 5 ranking, with another mid-teens preseason ranking, just because they play in the WAC, I don’t think you’ve been paying attention to how the pollsters have treated the mid-majors this whole season. It’s not the early 2000s anymore.
Granted, a similarly situated BCS-conference team would be in serious consideration for the #1 preseason ranking; Boise will not be. #2 is almost certainly too high, as well, IMHO. That’s where the bias comes in — they’ll be a few spots lower because they’re Boise State. But Top 5 is absolutely realistic with a win over TCU, and Top 10 is pretty much guaranteed regardless.