Rankings, Rankings, Rankings

Final Football Rankings are in - the Bears are 26 in the AP pool, and 25 in the final Coaches poll. That is up about four slots in each. Frankly, less than what I expected, but I am a homer.

Here is what my final football ranking would look like:

1. USC
2. Florida
3. Utah
4. Texas
5. Penn State
6. Oklahoma
7. Oregon
8. Oregon State
9. Texas Tech
10. Mississippi
11. Ohio State
12. TCU
13. Alabama
14. California
15. Virginia Tech
16. Georgia Tech
17. Georgia
18. Florida State
19. Boise State
20. Arizona
21. Michigan State
22. Cincinnati
23. West Virginia
24. Oklahoma State
25. Missouri

This was my vote in the CollegeBCS.com vote. Am I a Pac 10 homer? Perhaps. But here is my thinking:

First, the top five. I think USC looked better in the Rose Bowl than any other team. They played a very good Penn State team, and had thier way with them. Penn State, I think, could have beaten Texas or Oklahoma.

In the bowls, I think once again the Big 12 was exposed. They played no one all season, and then they play competition with defense and they get crushed. Texas won, so they got the highest ranking, But if they had played Florida, they may have lost as well. As far as it goes for Utah, I really think they are a top 10 team, but not a top five team. But they won all their games, and beat an overrated Alabama team in the Sugar Bowl. So they deserve a number 2 ranking. I do think that they are really in the class of Oregon, Oregon State, and Cal. Not in the class of Florida or USC.

At the end of the year, I think Oregon was playing superbly. Oregon State I gave a high ranking because they lost the Roger's boys, and they still thumped Oklahoma State.

I think the difference between number 9 Texas Tech and number 19 Boise State is nothing. Any of those could be interchanged. However, I did what I did based on the won loss record and the total number of top 25 wins. And then I adjusted based on my opinion. So there.

As far as it goes, I think my poll does diverge from the AP and others based on the fact that I actually watch west coast games, as well as east coast games. So I did include west coast teams in my poll.

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I do want to say about the AP poll: there are nine 4 loss teams ahead of Cal, and 5 three loss teams ahead of Cal. Of those teams, 5 had the same wins against top 25 oposition (one of which was Oregon, who we beat). There were three who had one win against top 25 opposition, and 6 who had NO wins against top 25 opposition. But the Bears were ranked behind all of them. It is a joke.


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At least the Men's hoop team is getting some love finally. We are not ranked yet, but will be after this weekend. Right now, the Bears are ranked number 10 in the RPI, and will improve with a road victory today against Washington. There are only 7 teams with as many victories as the Bears, and only one team with more - 15-0 Clemson. The Bears are tied with 6 other teams with 14 wins. Before the season, I predicted 18 wins would get us into the tournament. I think at this point, even though we are still early in the season, we are playing for seeding. The Bears could come back from next weeks road trip 5-0 in the Pac 10, after bearing Washington and Stanfurd on the Road. I could easily see us beating the Oregon Schools at home the week after, and go to LA 7-0 in the Pac 10. Granted, if we lost the last 11 games of our season, we may not make it. But there is a very real chance of finishing the first half of the season 7-2 or 8-1 in Pac 10 play. And that is the tough half of the conference season. This year, we get more teams at home in the second half.

I was nervous going into the Washington State game. I was concerned because that is a tough place to play, and they have a good team. But the Bears handled themselves well. It seems like they have a good head on, and are committed to playing to their potential. That has not been the case in a long time.

It used to be that we would wins many games because we were simply better, and some games that we should not because we got hot. But inevitably we would lose some games because we just had a brain cramp. These Bears seem to have a mental toughness that has been lacking in these parts for as long as I can remember.

It's nice to see.

GO BEARS!!