Yep, the AP Poll is out. Highlights:
-ND comes in at 32.
-Funny that the AP doesn't care about NCAA bans - they are gonna put the Trojans at 14 anyway!
-Outside of USC and Pitt, no other ND opponents are in the Top 25, though there are a bunch in 'Others Receiving Votes'.
-Michigan sucks so bad that they are nowhere near the vicinity of this ranking
And the guesses are...
1. Alabama (55)
2. Ohio State (3)
3. Boise State (1)
4. Florida
5. Texas (1)
6. TCU
7. Oklahoma (1)
8. Nebraska
9. Iowa
10. Virginia Tech
11. Oregon
12. Wisconsin
13. Miami
14. USC
15. Pittsburgh
16. Georgia Tech
17. Arkansas
18. North Carolina
19. Penn State
20. Florida State
21. LSU
22. Auburn
23. Georgia
24. Oregon State
25. West Virginia
Others Receiving Votes: Cincinnati108, Stanford81, Utah80, South Carolina71, Houston66, Connecticut32, Notre Dame31, Missouri27, Brigham Young19, Clemson15, Arizona15, Texas Tech14, Navy12, Washington8, Texas A&M7, Mississippi6, Oklahoma State3, Temple2, Central Michigan2, Middle Tennessee State2, Boston College1, Southern Methodist1, UCF1
By domer_mq August 21, 2010 - 1:10 pm
There is pretty much no excuse to have Utah anywhere outside of the top 25. 23-3 over the last 2 years. Undefeated 2 years ago. They’ve got a QB returning with plenty of experience to take over the starting role, and they’ve got one of the best backs in the country. The AP has become a farce.
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By SDI August 21, 2010 - 1:50 pm
Interesting point MQ. I have much respect for Utah. But it raises an interesting question: Should pre-season rankings be based in part on past accomplishments? Should they attempt to rank “how good” a team is in week 1? Or should they be a projection of where a team will end the season? I’m not sure how these AP folks pick, but I agree that Utah should be ranked under any standard.
Given that a bunch of prognosticators are picking ND to win 9+ games, you could argue that they should be ranked also. But the massive mediocrity of the past 2 years clearly has some effect on ND’s perceived value at this point, despite their wealth of talent and a coach who is highly thought of and somewhat of a quick fix specialist.
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By BurbankSteve August 21, 2010 - 2:28 pm
When I’ve got a lot of time on my hands someday I’m going to go back through all the preseason AP Top 25 listings and compare them to the final rankings.
I’m not sure what statistical measure will have to be used to get an accuracy rating, but one thing is for sure – on a “totally sucks” scale of 1 to 10, you can be sure we’re going to be looking at somewhere close to a solid 9.5
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By TLNDMA August 21, 2010 - 2:42 pm
Temple, Central Michigan and Middle Tenn. St., received more votes than the skunkbears!
heehee.
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By BurbankSteve August 22, 2010 - 1:32 pm
Meaningless analysis of meaningless pre-season AP rankings for 2009:
Comparing the pre-season with the final rankings AP for 2009, on average there is a difference of 14 places across all the teams.
In other words, a team’s ranking is subject to a plus/minus 14 spots – not exactly laser-sharp accuracy.
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By the biscuit August 22, 2010 - 2:14 pm
Thanks Steve. What was the worst and best?
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By BurbankSteve August 22, 2010 - 7:43 pm
Worst was Cal (from 12 to 55) – best were Texas and Penn State who both ended up where they started (2nd and 9th respectively)
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