Interesting facts about the top 25 preseason polls

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These stats will give you an idea of how these preseason polls are far from perfect. I thought is was most interesting to find out who was the most overrated and underrated teams and conferences rated in these preseason polls. Here are the stats taken from the last 10 years of polls:

The most overrated conference in the last 10 years has been the Big 12.

Only 3 teams from this conference on average have improved their preseason rankings. Iowa State, Kansas State and Texas Tech. The most overrated teams from the conference have been Nebraska, Texas & Texas A&M. Teams from the Big 12 have dropped an accumulative -78.5 spots in the polls the last 10 years.

The most underrated conference in the last 10 years has been the Pac 10

And it wasn't even close with the rest of the conferences. The three teams who have helped boost their rankings the most in this conference has been Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State. The Pac 10 has improved their ranking by an accumaltive +60.5 spots in the polls.

The closest conference to the Pac 10 has been the Big East with a +9. And the SEC dropped their rankings by an accumaltive average of -12.5.

The 10 most overrated teams in the last 10 years: And no, Notre Dame didn't make the list because they rose from the unranked to ranked in the years 2000, 02 & 05.

1.Florida State

2.Tennessee

3.Washington

4.Miami

5.Ohio State

6.Nebraska

7.Florida

8.Michigan

9.Texas

10.Clemson

The most underrated teams the last 10 years:

1.Washington State

2.Boise State

3.Oregon

4.Arkansas

5.Wisconsin

6.Louisville

7.TCU

8.Boston College

9.Iowa

10.Maryland

Here are a few more facts:

The National Champion has come from outside of the top 10 only four times since 1991.

1.Michigan in '97 (original ranking 14)

2.OU in 2000 (original ranking 19)

3.Ohio State in 02 (original ranking 13)

4.LSU in 03 (original ranking 14)

During the last 20 seasons 13 teams have lost a game and still managed to finish the regular season ranked in the top 2 in the BCS standings or polls. But only one of those teams were ranked lower than 8th in the preseason poll. LSU in 2003.

So if your favorite team is beginning the 2007 season outside of the top 10 in the AP or ESPN,/USA Today poll you'd better hope for an undefeated season. Otherwise your team has a very small chance of winning the National Campionship...Duh!

Here's a little stat that I found interesting:

For those teams not rated in the preseason top 25, in every season since 1997 at least 2 teams that started the season unranked, finished in the top 10.

Make your own conclusions. Here is the USA Today top 25 poll:

1.USC

2.LSU

3.Florida

4.Texas

5.Michigan

6.West Virginia

7.Wisconsin

8.Oklahoma

9.Va. Tech

10.Ohio State

11.Louisville

12.California

13.Georgia

14.Auburn

15.Tennessee

16.Rutgers

17.UCLA

18.Penn State

19.Nebraska

20.Arkansas

21.Florida State

22.TCU

23.Boise State

24.Hawaii

25.Texas Tech

Honorable mentions of note that are not rated:

Georgia Tech

Miami

South Carolina

Missouri

Oregon State

South Florida

Oklahoma State

Arizona

Boston College

Arizona State

So which two of these unrated teams will make the top 10 this season?