Georgia leads 6 teams getting 1st place votes
The 2008 preseason poll comes out with 6 teams, 3 from the SEC, getting first place votes. The leading vote getter, Georgia, was reminded of what got ‘em there by Coach Richt. We’ll save that for later.
Preseason polls are interesting and unfortunately matter more than they should as pollsters do not like to move teams above an unbeaten team even if performance on the field indicates they should. In the last 5 years this has begun to happen and hopefully when justified this will continue.
So in the interest of… interest, I’ll start with a question. Does this represent where voters believe teams will be ranked at the end of the season or is it a simple list from top to bottom of who would beat whom on a neutral field 2 out of 3 meetings?
Let’s go with the latter and begin. Three top ten teams should not be there. Ohio State will win 10 and probably 11 games. They won’t beat Oklahoma, Florida of LSU on most days and should be at 6 or 7th just a few slots above Wisconsin who should round out the top 10. Missouri will likely win the Big Twelve North but not likely to get through that half the conference without a loss and the trip to Austin will be a problem. Move ‘em to 12th. Lots of changes at West Virginia in both the coaching staff and backfield. I have trouble with them ahead of Auburn, Wisconsin and Texas. I could say the same thing about Clemson but the ACC has to show up somewhere don’t they.
Opps, I’m now thinking where the teams may end the season. And perhaps the voters have also. They seem to pick a conference winner knowing they go to a BCS Bowl and with a decent bowl game performance, a top ten finish.
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