College football season is over :(
It's time to take a look at the season that was beginning today with the overall computer rankings, post bowl game.
Top 25
1 Auburn (14-0, 195.14) – Of course the Tigers are the top team with wins over five teams in this top 25 and two more wins over South Carolina who is ranked 26. In any sort of resume ranking that does not included margin of victory (like this one), Auburn absolutely has to be the top team.
2 Oklahoma (12-2, 172.29) – Oklahoma is highly ranked in this computer as usual. A strong non-conference schedule plus drawing the better teams from the Big 12 North means a very high ranking.
3 TCU (13-0, 167.54) – TCU is nowhere near Auburn in part because they played an overall schedule weaker than every BCS league team according to the computer. Some of that, of course was not playing themselves as every other Mountain West team played a schedule that equaled much or the Big Ten, Big East and ACC schedules.
4 Stanford (12-1, 167.08) – Cardinal are ranked higher than Pac-10 brethren Oregon in part because of better non-conference schedule and in part because the win over Virginia Tech makes up some of the ground lost by Oregon's win over Stanford.
5 Ohio St. (12-1, 162.00) – While the Buckeyes beat no elite teams other than Arkansas, they beat a lot of above average teams and didn't lose a lot of games or lose to a bad team.
6 LSU (11-2, 159.46) – Once again, a strong non-conference schedule carries a team as North Carolina and West Virginia are a lot more adventurous than many others attempted. Add a bowl win over Texas A&M and the resume looks really good.
7 Oregon (12-1, 154.85) – Next season's non-conference game should fix this problem. Tennessee was way way down this season. LSU next year won't be.
8 Oklahoma St. (11-2, 147.38) – Cowboys just won a lot of games to get this high. Also benefited from being in a Big 12 that was and still is overrated in the computers.
9 Missouri (10-3, 142.46) – Most Overrated Team – And now we see the proof of the overratedness of the Big 12 in the computers. Missouri's non-conference wins over Miami (OH), San Diego St. and Illinois all carried a ton more weight than it was thought they would before the season. Other than Illinois, the others were meant to be cupcakes, not 9 or 10 win teams.
10 Boise St. (12-1, 139.00) – Broncos win over Virginia Tech turned out to be one of the valuable of the season by anyone despite the Hokies problems against elite teams, though the win confirms Boise as an elite team, at least for this season.
11 Alabama (10-3, 138.54) – It seems nearly everybody (including the computers) agrees on Alabama: supremely talented that underachieved a little bit and had some bad luck. The result is a ranking between 8 and 12 and not many people will argue that.
12 Michigan St. (11-2, 136.62) – Sparty is also pretty overrated by this computer, but the lack of margin of victory explains that. If margin of victory was included, the losses to Alabama and Iowa would look much worse while many of the close wins would also cause problems for the Spartans.
13 Nevada (13-1, 135.29) – The best season in Nevada history could have been better, a lot better, if the Wolfpack had shown up for the first half in Hawaii (they trailed 17-0 at halftime en route to a 27-21 loss). That said, an undefeated Nevada was never going to the BCS as long as TCU remained undefeated.
14 Virginia Tech (11-3, 132.29) – Hokies loss to James Madison, even with the short week and hungover from Boise explanations is still the most befuddling loss of the season, by far.
15 Arkansas (10-3, 130.92) – It seems this team should be higher with its wins over Texas A&M, LSU, Mississippi St. and South Carolina and only elite losses, but the Razorbacks didn't even attempt to play even an average team other than Texas A&M in the non-conference
16 Wisconsin (11-2, 130.08) – Most Underrated Team. Rankings like this are why many people look at the computers and yell and scream to high heaven when they get a shot to influence the national title race. The reason of course is Wisconsin's schedule that in the non-conference included an average at best Arizona St. team and three cupcakes including San Jose St. and Austin Peay along with not missing any of the awful teams in Big Ten play.
17 Texas A&M (9-4, 128.92) – I have been really high on this team all season for some reason. Oddly, except Oklahoma, every team the Aggies beat is ranked below them and all four teams that beat Texas A&M are ranked higher than this.
18 Florida St. (10-4, 124.36) – Seminoles will be overwhelming ACC favorites next season after finally getting thins turned around this year. It turns out the Oklahoma loss wasn't as bad as everyone thought when it happened.
19 Utah (10-3, 117.85) – Another overrated team, the Utes benefit from Notre Dame's winning streak to end the season helping to not kill the ranking and the surprising strength of the middle of the Mountain West this season
20 Nebraska (10-4, 113.29) – Cornhuskers were awful in the bowl game, but the reason for the ranking being down here is the terrible non-conference schedule (Washington was the only team with a pulse) and the ugly loss to Texas (not to mention losing the rematch to Washington in the bowl game).
21 NC State (9-4, 108.92) – Wolfpack seemed a lot more Jekyll and Hyde-ish then they actually were. With the exception of a bad loss to East Carolina, the only losses were toss ups at best and this team finally didn't lose to anyone terrible in conference play, the first time in quite some time that can be said.
22 West Virginia (9-4, 103.15) – The Big East does get a top 25 team here, somehow. The Mountaineers can thank win over Maryland outside of the conference and LSU's elite status for that. It certainly wasn't earned by going 5-2 in the crappy Big East.
23 Notre Dame (8-5, 102.15) – Everyone thought the Irish were cooked after losing to Tulsa. It turns out that wasn't a bad loss and Notre Dame was just fine. In fact, had Notre Dame won that game and the Navy game the week before, they would have been in the top 15, even with the loss to Michigan (that was a worse loss than losing to either Tulsa or Navy turned out to be)
24 Mississippi St. (9-4, 101.08) – Proof the SEC West was the best collection of team in college football: Mississippi St. won nine games and got into the top 25 despite not winning a game against a team that finished above them in the division standings. It helps to beat everyone else on the schedule.
25 Maryland (9-4, 100.54) – Terps turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the season. Would have finished higher if the bowl opponent had been a bit better. East Carolina was one of the worst teams to make a bowl game this season (and was the worst on defense).
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