Good analysis by CFN on college football preseason rankings vs. actual performance. Not too surprising that ND doesn't fare all that well due to some major disappointing seasons for the Irish in recent years in comparison to the high levels of respect in the polls always accorded the Irish before seasons begin. Hmmmm.....the Irish sure are being ranked high this year for such a seemingly tough schedule and team that had defensive lapses last year. http://www.collegefootballnews.com/2006/Columnists/RC/OverratedTeams.htm My feeling is that both ND and Florida will accomplish their BCS bowl goals this year but neither team will factor into the BCS title game because of tough scheduling. Two losses apiece seems about right and would be a good season for both squads.
Ah yes, coming off a season in which we weren't even ranked in the preseason top 25 and ended up in a BCS bowl, we once again have to put up with being overranked.
Interesting article. Irish have been a very up and down team during the years of that article. It encompases Faust, Davie and Willingham years...years that we usually did not end up where we started. Texas is pretty close to ND, again it included a lot of years where we had talent but not a coach. Terry
Terry you are right on that the coaches who fell in the mediocre range of success at ND were responsible for a lot of this ranking. Still, annually high expectations for ND by fans and media contribute to their position in this analysis.
No, MCG. What contributes to ND's position in the analysis is the opinion of whoever writes for the publication. Don't make it more than what it is. It is interesting reading, but it is irrelevent. I would say the same thing if the writer(s) had said that ND is the most underrated team.
:?: Why begin the analysis in 1971? Of course the Florida schools would come out as underrated after that. They never won anything before 1971, which is when they began using black players who had previously been banned. It takes time to build a winning tradition, which is where expectations of winning come from... .............JO'Co
Fla schools never won anything to speak of till the mid 1980's. Besides my feeling has always been the ND moves down further faster with a loss than the other schools.
First of all to be overrated and not perform up to expectations you have to be rated in the first place. Not too many times pre-'71 were the Fla schools highly rated in preseason. On the analysis Sid the writer uses quantitative data to form conclusions and not his opinions.