Most Overrated AP College Football Teams all time

Submitted by MGoGrendel on

SB Nation has an article titled The most overrated college football team from each preseason AP Poll ever.  They look at each season in the 67 year history of the AP and see which team fell the farthest from their preseason ranking.

A lot of big name programs appear on the list with ND and USC tied for the worst overall performance/most times overrated, with Sparty “winning” a tie breaker against ND to keep them off the top podium.

Michigan is on their twice, once in 2007 (doh!) and once in 1965.  Some good snark applied to all conferences..  Enjoy!

UMQuadz05

June 27th, 2017 at 4:56 PM ^

That was a good time.  And given Michigan's tradition of "non-conference bed shitting" in the 90's and 00's, I was actually surprised we didn't get featured more.

stephenrjking

June 27th, 2017 at 5:05 PM ^

But kept Jake Long, Chad Henne, Mike Hart, and Mario Manningham. That team had talent. 

They're only on there because of how public and notable the opening losses were, particularly the first one. Most of the other teams to make this list went from top 10 to barely .500 or worse; Michigan finished the season by lighting up the Tim Tebow Gators.

Tuebor

June 28th, 2017 at 8:49 AM ^

We aren't even the worst drop in that season.  We went from Preseason #5 to Final #18.  A 13 spot drop.  Louisville went from preseason #10 to unranked.  At the very least a 16 spot drop...

 

But yeah our opening day loss in 2007 was pretty horrific one might say.

 

 

 

LSAClassOf2000

June 27th, 2017 at 5:11 PM ^

2013: No. 10 Florida finished 4-8, lost an FCS game, and got memed.

OK, the two Gators blocking each other in that Georgia Southern game is still one of the funniest things in recent memory. "Now, when I said that we should block just like in practice, what I meant was...."

xtramelanin

June 27th, 2017 at 5:21 PM ^

beating us in the holiday bowl and getting the national championship.   not exactly the call of the question, but undoubtedly the most overrated team.  ever. 

Don

June 28th, 2017 at 10:24 AM ^

BYU just got away with another obvious hold on our DL, making it 346 holding calls for the game that those fucking refs purposely ignored.

SFBlue

June 27th, 2017 at 8:28 PM ^

'07 team does not belong on this list with jokers who went 3-and-something.



They finished in the Top 20 and beat Tebow in Florida. Were Henne and Hart healthy they go to the Rose Bowl, at minimum. Both were injured against Appy and Oregon, and Henne went down for Wisconsin and Ohio.



They were rated just right. But had a ton of bad luck.

The Fan in Fargo

June 28th, 2017 at 12:16 AM ^

That Florida team was stacked athletically and probably more talented at a few positions than Michigan speed wise. However, speed can be conquered with containment and geometry. It's all about angles on the football field as I like to say the smart football players and people know. A cat with descent quicks who can use his body well enough to conquer the angles and leading a player certain ways can rule any man on a football field. Even Barry Sanders isn't immortal to it. Anyway, I think that Florida team had a few injuries themselves that year. Top five most talented teams in the country played in the Gator bowl that day. Or was it the Outback? Either way, the bad boys won and had the swag.

NittanyFan

June 27th, 2017 at 11:51 PM ^

literally everybody else in college football in 1984 had at least one and a half losses (tie being half a loss).

Perfect storm for BYU.  Is what it is.  Retroactively doing S&P+ analytics, BYU did rank #5 that year.  Take that for what it's worth --- #5 isnt #1 but neither is it somewhere in the teens.

https://www.footballstudyhall.com/2016/5/18/11700220/1984-college-footb…

(on a sidebar ---- Georgia in 1980 won the MNC but ranked 17th (!!!!!) in the retroactive S&P+ analytics.  17th!  The SEC was total garbage that year and UGA also missed the 2 next-best teams in the conference, Alabama and MSU.  They drew #7 ND in their Bowl Game.  They won basically every single game by 6 points or less.  But they never lost, and w/ every other team having at least one L on the resume, Georgia won the MNC)

fksljj

June 27th, 2017 at 11:15 PM ^

"Michigan finished the season by lighting up the Tim Tebow Gators."

 

Part of it was the players played out of their mind for Coach Carr in his last game. The Gators also started talking some trash during warmups and strecthing right before the game which fired up the boys. Wow just realized Lloyd Carr a perfect 1-0 against Urban Meyer. Hoke and Harbaugh 0-5.