Time to put a wrap on this past college football season with the reviews of my predictions
Music to listen to: Natural Science by Rush
Here were my list of preseason champions:
Big East: Pitt
Big Ten: Ohio State
SEC: Alabama
Big 12: Oklahoma
ACC: Virginia Tech
Pac-10: Oregon
At-large BCS picks: Boise State, Florida, Iowa and Texas
National Championship Game: Alabama over Ohio State
Heisman Trophy winner: Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State
I messed up on the Big East in a major way seeing how Pitt had such a disappointing season that the head coach was fired. Technically got the Big 10 right since Ohio State tied for the title with Michigan State and Wisconsin. I should have known better than to pick Alabama to repeat as SEC champs. Oklahoma did what I thought. My Virginia Tech pick looked shaky at the start of the season but became right in the end. I was bullish on Oregon from the start and was a correct call.
I really did think Boise State would make the BCS and outside of a few missed field goals in Reno, Nevada from that happening.
Where I really missed was with Florida, which didn’t even its own division in the SEC, Iowa, which barely finished in the top half of the Big 10 and Texas, which didn’t even make a bowl game.
Alabama didn’t even make the BCS but at least Ohio State made the Sugar Bowl.
Terrelle Pryor didn’t win the Heisman and didn’t even make an All-Big Ten team.
Here’s some more specific breakdowns with my preseason top-25 (the number in the parenthesis will be the final AP poll ranking):
1- Alabama (10) The Crimson Tide just had a situation where it had too many tough games on the schedule. Alabama had to go from at Arkansas, hosting Florida and finally losing at South Carolina. The second loss of the year was at LSU and finally the ultimate blow was blowing a 21-point lead at home to Auburn.
2- Ohio State (5) Its hard to call a one-loss season a disappointment, but when your aspirations are to reach BCS title games and at the worst the Rose Bowl, not reaching those goals make it an underwhelming season.
3- Texas (NR) Bad call on my part. I should have valued the loss of Colt McCoy and other top players higher when making my predictions. However, there isn’t a reason Texas shouldn’t be a bowl team. That’s unacceptable.
4- Florida (NR) Once again, losing top players such as Brandon Spikes, Tim Tebow and a cast of others should have been my indication to not place the Gators so high. Florida lost to teams such as Mississippi State, Florida State and South Carolina in contests where the opponent didn’t get lucky with a fluke play to earn the victory. Those teams beat the Gators in every phase of the game and were even more talented, something that didn’t happen at Florida in the past few years.
5- Virginia Tech (16) Losing to Boise State, not so bad. Losing to James Madison, shameful. The good part for the Hokies is that they won the rest of their games of the season before the bowl game against Stanford and even won the ACC championship.
6- Boise State (9) I thought that a top-ten preseason placement for Boise State would be appropriate and I was correct in that diagnosis. I expected the Broncos to drop a contest during the year, but thought it would happen earlier in the year to Virginia Tech.
7- Oklahoma (6) I was accurate with the Sooners.
8- TCU (2) Undervalued the Horned Frogs and should have replaced Boise State with them in my BCS projections.
9- Nebraska (20) Disappointing year which saw the emergence of Taylor Martinez at quarterback for a few games but than the loss at home to Texas ruined any national title aspirations for the Huskers. Ten wins isn’t something to ignore but further losses at Texas A&M and to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game didn’t help the overall cause.
10- Iowa (NR) My worst outlook outside of Texas
11- Oregon (3) I thought the Ducks would win the Pac-10 but not be good enough to make the national title game.
12- Wisconsin (7) Slightly undervalued the Big Ten champions
13- Miami (NR) Similar to me and Gonzaga in men’s basketball, I’m never, ever going to project positive things in the preseason for Miami again. Complete disaster with an inconsistent quarterback, bad defense by Miami standards, lack of fan support and ultimately a coach firing.
14- Penn State (NR) Similar to Miami to a lesser degree in my lack of faith in this program. Its time for Joe Paterno to go.
15- Pittsburgh (NR) Bad run of teams for me at this part of my preseason poll
16- LSU (8) There’s always drama with the Tigers but once again, Les Miles won double-digit games through superior talent, lucky breaks and a coaching style that is “untraditional” and that’s being generous.
17- Georgia Tech (NR) Truly disappointing season in the Flats for the Yellow Jackets. Losing on the road to Kansas set a bad precedent for Georgia Tech this season of losing contests they shouldn’t have, especially at home to Miami and North Carolina State.
18- North Carolina (NR) To be fair, I made this pick before all of the suspensions went down.
19- Georgia (NR) Seeing how the Bulldogs had a losing record, this was a bad call.
20- Florida State (17) I expected the Seminoles to be at this point of their progression after Bobby Bowden left after last season.
21- Arkansas (12) The Razorbacks were one drive away from winning the Sugar Bowl, so I undervalued Arkansas in the preseason. I didn’t think that the defense or running game would be able to keep up with the passing attack but it happened towards the end of the year.
22- Oregon State (NR) The Beavers didn’t even make a bowl game.
23- Auburn (1) It took me that long to get to the Tigers. I knew that the offense would be decent because Gus Malzahn had the Tigers doing well last year in that department. Furthermore, I heard some good things about Cam Newton over the summer. Like everyone else, I didn’t think he would reach the levels he did. Furthermore, the issue going into the year was actually the defense but obviously Auburn figured that out as well.
24- South Carolina (22) I had a feeling that this would be the year that Steve Spurrier could help the Gamecocks reach some higher levels than the past. However, I did have South Carolina finishing third in the SEC East so I was wrong on that front.
25- West Virginia (NR) Bad call.
Here were the teams that finished in the AP Top-25 that I didn’t even have ranked in my preseason poll
-Stanford (4) I thought the loss of Toby Gerhart would be too much. I should have listened to Jim Harbaugh when he said that Andrew Luck was the best quarterback prospect he had even seen.
-Nevada (11) Some people had the Wolf Pack in their top-25 but I defy anyone who had it in their top-15
-Oklahoma State (13) Liked the offense, didn’t trust the defense
-Michigan State (14) Didn’t see this coming
-Mississippi State (15) Had thoughts of putting the Bulldogs in my top-25 but held off.
-Missouri (18) Another surprise to me
-Texas A&M (19) Didn’t trust putting Texas A&M in my poll because I’ve been burned by the Aggies in the past.
-Central Florida (21) A pleasant surprise which I should have seen because I was there in the summer and saw a potential top-25 team.
-Maryland (23) I thought that the Terps would be one of the two or three worst teams in the ACC this year.
-Tulsa (24) There’s always a WAC, Conference USA or Mountain West team that finishes in the top-25 that you can’t figure out.
-NC State (25) Liked Russell Wilson but not much else going into this year.
What have I learned from this? Its less difficult to pick the top-10 but beyond that is a crap shoot.
How did you do in your college football predictions?
The Sports Inquirer 
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