2006 Preseason Polls (official thread)

[NightmaresDad]

Originally Posted by Peanut Beckley

25. Nebraska
24. ASU
23. Utah
22. Texas Tech
21. Virginia Tech
20. Tennessee
19. Oregon
18. TCU
17. Florida State
16. Iowa
15. Georgia
14. Miami (FL)
13. Michigan
12. Clemson
11. LSU
10. Louisville
9. Auburn
8. Cal
7. Texas
6. West Virginia
5. Florida
4. Ohio State
3. USC
2. ???
1. ???

What? scUm and FL St not in the top 10?
That's sacrilege to pre-season pollsters!!!
In fact, isn't there an unwritten law that all 3 big FL schools HAVE to be in the top 15?

If they rank ND above tOSU, then I guess they didn't watch the bowl game in jaunuary. Do they think ND's defense is miraculously going to become decent?

Oh well, i guess we'll have to go ahead and play the games, then.

[t_BuckeyeScott]

This is my first post. Alot of these polls are trying to predict how the teams will finish the year. Read Ivan Maisel's article more closely. He even states as so. (Before I get it started even though I live in OKC, I have only been here 4 months and I only hate 2 schools more: the school up North and Florida) I would defend his pick of OU as #2 under that criteria because with OUs cupcake schedule they shouldn't have a problem going udefeated other than the Texas game. And the only time Mack Brown has beaten OU was last year. You could easily make the argument that OU might even be more likely to go undefeated than the Buckeyes. In no way do I think they are better, but still.

[methomps]

Phil Steele's top 25 (note: this is not based on talent, but on a combination of talent and schedule...basically his prediction for each team will finish)

1. OU
2. Auburn
3. Louisville
4. USC
5. Texas
6. Miami
7. Notre Dame
8. OSU
9. VT
10. FSU
11. Michigan
12. Tennessee
13. Arkansas
14. Georgia
15. Iowa
16. Cal
17. WVU
18. Clemson
19. Boise St
20. Florida
21. LSU
22. Nebraska
23. Utah
24. Purdue
25. Oregon

Power poll (no consideration for schedule, simply the best teams)

PS's Power Poll
1.OU
2.Texas
3.USC
4.Ohio St.
5.Notre Dame
6.Auburn
7.Michigan
8.Cal
9.FSU
10.Florida
11Miami, Fl
12Arkansas
13LSU
14Louisville
15Tenn.
16Va Tech
17Iowa
18Clemson
19Oregon
20Georgia
21Nebraska
22Penn St.
23Texas Tech
24WVU
25Ariz. St.

[OregonBuckeye]

Phil Steele done [censored]ed up. Still my favorite preseason mag just due to the in-depth previews. I really don't care about preseason polls anyways.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Originally Posted by OregonBuckeye

I really don't care about preseason polls anyways.

There are two you should really care about: The AP and the Coaches Polls.

[OregonBuckeye]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

There are two you should really care about: The AP and the Coaches Polls.

I meant from preseason magazines. Yes, the 2 you listed are important.

[methomps]

For those of you still trying to put together your top 25:

EVERYBODY’S TOP 25

Preseason top 25s are sprouting up like mildew patches in the summer heat. If you’re having trouble piecing yours together–and we know we are–use this handy guide to instant punditry we found just lying around the interweb, the EDSBS Pundit-by-Numbers Preseason Top 25 Assembly Kit®.
Make-Your-Own Top 25!
1. Number one. WHEW! Hard one here. Make things easier on yourself by just putting a.) last year’s champion here if they’ve got the same quarterback, or b.) Grab a team that won a BCS game last year and still has the same quarterback. You won’t look too crazy by doing either. If last year’s champ has lost their quarterback, move to slot 5 AUTOMATICALLY.

“Texas has to be the preseason favorite with Vince Young returning. Wait, we mean…um…they’re fifth. Yeah, fifth.”
2. Another easy one! Remember number two at the end of the year last year? You got it: just slide ‘em in here and keep rolling, rockstar.
3. Okay, tricky one at three, one that might require one or two GOOGLE SEARCHES. The team that won their big BCS bowl game last year by a shocker? Roll ‘em right in. SPECIAL NEW YORK TIMES PROVISION: this is where you put Michigan. Because you know a guy who went there, and he was pretty smart and cool and all that, and you didn’t really have a good football team where you went to school since lacrosse was really the thing there.
4. Another research one: take a team that’s a traditional power in the top ten. Did they go 8-4 last year? Or something like it? Okay, that’s your pick!
5. (RESERVED FOR LAST YEAR’S CHAMP MINUS QUARTERBACK. IF ABSENT, INSERT TENNESSEE.)

Fulmer sez: gimme five! Corndogs, that is.
6. A really easy one for the ol’ seis-spot: NOTRE DAME. They’re on television all the time and they had that movie with the kid from Goonies in it, plus they score like crazy these days. Even if they fall from the top ten you’re actually creating content for yourself, since you can then write one of your standard pairs of filler columns, the “wake up the echoes” preseason Notre Dame column/ “what the hell happened to the goddamn echoes” post-season Notre Dame column.

Notre Dame’s at 6. They’ve got Sean Astin on their side, and he was in White Water Summer, for god’s sake. You can’t deal with that, son.
7. Time to get bold here. Got a program that’s won a ton of games but never a big one? An offensive juggernaut whose almost beat significant opponents on a national stage but racks up fifty and sixty points on the midgets of the world? Seven is the place for them. It gives you BOLD pundit points and must be accompanied by a phrase of great certainty, like “This is the year they get it done.” If you hedge, just put Michigan in here and move on.

Boise’s good for easy BOLD points, especially after they <strike>beat</strike> lost horribly to Georgia.
8. Find out who the SEC champion was last year. Go ahead and put them here.
9. This is always a good place to put a Larry Coker-era Miami team. If not, have you considered putting Florida State here? They’re always a nice place holder, too.
10. Have you put all your Florida teams in the top ten? It’s essential to put them all in your to ten, if only to put them lower in your post-season poll, which then–thinking ahead!–gives you still more column filler in the form of “Sunshine State ain’t so sunny anymore” piece. If you hesitate to do this, again, just put Michigan here if you havent’ used them already.

One. Ten. We’re somewhere in there, guys. Where’s the friggin’s scotch around here…
11-25: A little secret of the trade….no one reads these. No one. The only people who will read them in total are basement-dwelling slobboids who will then write 13 page screeds in response to your critical underestimation of Clemson/Cal/Northwestern/Louisville/Tech/Florida/etc..

Plebe! Your ignorance regarding the worth of the (insert my team here) has forced me to answer at length on my blog. Prepare for a fisking!!!
In reality, you will simply take the next fifteen teams you can name off the top of your head and rattle them off on the page, just listing them in no particular order and tagging each one with the only thing you can remember about them at the time. Example:

#22: Fresno State: Bulldogs’ tough schedule will keep Pat Hill twiddling his mustache all year long.

See? No research required. You know Fresno plays a tough schedule every year, and that Pat Hill has a bitchin’ mustache. Combine the two and presto! Instant content.