Way-too-early Preseason Top 25 (according to ESPN)

Submitted by samber2009 on

Because they have a long stretch of minimal college football activity ahead of them, ESPN has naturally released an early preseason poll.  I don't have a problem with too many of the rankings, but Notre Dame at 14? Really? I know it's unofficial but ND's preseason rankings surprise me without actually surprising me every year. Some are head scratchers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=6087284

 

 

1. Oklahoma Sooners

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

3. Florida State Seminoles

4. LSU Tigers

5. Oregon Ducks

6. Ohio State Buckeyes

7. Stanford Cardinal

8. Boise State Broncos

9. TCU Horned Frogs

10. Oklahoma State Cowboys

11. Arkansas Razorbacks

12. Texas A&M Aggies

13. Wisconsin Badgers

14. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

15. South Carolina Gamecocks

16. Michigan State Spartans

17. Auburn Tigers

18. Georgia Bulldogs

19. Texas Longhorns

20. Florida Gators

21. Missouri Tigers

22. Virginia Tech Hokies

23. Arizona State Sun Devils

.24. Nebraska Cornhuskers

25. Mississippi State Bulldogs

 

bighouseinmate

February 4th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^

........confuses me. Didn't they lose a ton of players? Didn't they get their ass handed to them against Alabama? Just thinking that they had their one really good year out of a decade and now it's time to go back to the middle of the B10 again.

WolvinLA2

February 4th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^

And their starting TE, right?

Not only that, but MSU is not a deep team at most positions. Last year they had a lot of guys have big years and they all stayed healthy for the most part. I'm skeptical the new guys they're breaking in are anything close to who they're replacing and that they'll be able to stay as healthy.

FreddieMercuryHayes

February 4th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^

They are not at odds with each other. So far ND has not proven they deserve that ranking, even though they did close the season strong. However, if they come through on the promise they showed and win 9 or 10 games, they will be that high at the end of the season. This senario would not surprise me.

joeyb

February 4th, 2011 at 12:58 PM ^

ND started out slow, but finished 7-2 and 4-0, including a win @USC. They look like they could have a very big breakout season this year. Keep in mind that they were 8-5. Finishing 9-3 or 10-2 next year will probably be enough to get them up there.

MI Expat NY

February 4th, 2011 at 1:38 PM ^

They were a drop from a wide open USC WR from being 6-6.  I think ND's ranking is the classic overreaction to a bowl win.  They spanked Miami, a team in disarray that had just seen its head coach fired.  Makes people look past the fact that they got drilled by Navy and lost to Tulsa at home.  

I think ND will end up in the 15-20 range, there schedule is really easy, but I think it's silly to rank them this high to start the season.  Oh well, it'll just make our leap into the top 25 quicker after we beat them Sept. 10.

MichiganFantana

February 4th, 2011 at 1:03 PM ^

Michigan State at 16 is more surprising to me than Notre Dame at 14.  Notre Dame started playing decent football toward the end of the year.  MSU was the luckiest team I have ever seen this past season.  No way lightning strikes twice for them.  They will be lucky to get to 7 wins next year and thats if they can keep all their players out of prison over the off season.  They will be heading back to the being the best of the worst in the big ten over the next couple years.  

Bosch

February 4th, 2011 at 1:05 PM ^

with ND at 14.  They were play pretty good ball to end the season.

There are some other teams that I'm not sure even belong on that list.... Arkansas for example.  We'll see how they survive the SEC West sans Mallett.

dennisblundon

February 4th, 2011 at 1:26 PM ^

Arkansas is the one that jumps off the screen to me. These preseason polls actually do matter despite the obsurdity by which they are put together. It's hard for an unranked team to climb the polls by the end of the year and play in the championship game. At least wait until week 4 to realese them in my opinion.

oHOWiHATEohioSTATE

February 4th, 2011 at 1:08 PM ^

ND should me a top 20 team

Sept. 3 against South Florida at home
Sept. 10 at Michigan
Sept 17 home with Michigan State
Sept. 24 at Pittsburgh
Oct. 1 at Purdue
Oct. 8, 2011 Air Force at home
Oct. 22 at home with USC
Oct. 29 at home with Navy
Nov. 5 at home with Wake Forest
Nov. 12 against Maryland at FedEx Field
Nov. 26 at Stanford

the BC game is the last to be slotted, with Oct 15 or Nov 19th the open dates. Nice slate of home games through October though

WolvinLA2

February 4th, 2011 at 5:32 PM ^

I don't know if 9-3 without beating anyone good (except maybe MSU) will be good enough for #14 in the country.  There will be at least 10 teams from BCS conferences with better than a 9-3 record and another half dozen sitting at 9-3 over tougher schedules.  That's a minimum.

EDIT:  Last year, pre-bowls, the highest ranked 3 loss team was Alabama at #16.  Nebraska was #18 at 10-3, so 9-3 ND would certainly be behind both, since both of those teams faced a number of ranked teams and actually beat some of them (namely @ OK St. and against Mizzou, and two of their losses were Oklahoma and TAMU).