Brad’s College Football Season in Review- The “what were they thinking” entry
Posted by deaconcat08 on January 21, 2011
Well, the college football season has come to a close, and it’s time to look back to see how I fared with my preseason predictions compared to the experts, especially my arch rival prognosticator Phil Steele. This is the fourth season I’ve conducted this full, in-depth analysis of my preseason picks, and have had mixed results in doing so. I ended up being more accurate than the experts/Phil Steele in both 2007 and 2009, but did much worse in 2008. (see full history here: http://sportsentiment.com/2010/07/07/brads-2010-college-football-preview-guide-introduction/) This year my battle with the experts (especially with my arch rival Phil Steele) ended in a tie. (see season in review introduction entry below for more information). I will now methodically rehash my preseason’s rankings, as well as the experts’, to show you our brilliance as well as our stupidity.
In this entry we will look at what teams surprised/disappointed the preseason experts the most, which is a nice way of saying, “wow, no one saw this coming.” The final national rankings used for this entry are from CBS’ Top 120 poll.
Teams that surprised the nation the most:
1. Miami-OH- finished 91 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted (note: the Redhawks were also # 1 on my “what was I thinking entry”)
2. San Diego State- finished 55 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
3. Maryland- finished 55 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
4. Oklahoma State- finished 46 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
5. NC State- finished 41 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
6. Mississippi State- finished 41 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
7. Syracuse- finished 39 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
8. Northern Illinois- finished 38 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
9. Illinois- finished 37 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted (note: Illinois was # 2 on the most disappointing list last year)
10. Army- finished 37 spots higher nationally than the experts predicted
Teams that disappointed the nation the most:
1. Texas- finished 68 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted (note: the Redhawks were also # 1 on my “what was I thinking entry”)
2. Kansas- finished 68 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted (note: Kansas was # 2 on this same list last year)
3. Rutgers- finished 54 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted
4. Cincinnati- finished 51 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted
5. Houston- finished 50 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted
6. Georgia Tech- finished 49 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted
7. Oregon State- finished 48 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted
8. Purdue- finished 41 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted
9. Miami (FL)- finished 33 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted
10. Georgia- finished 33 spots lower nationally than the experts predicted