Tilting at Windmills

This week presented the first real challenges in ranking

• Do you rank OU ahead of BYU?
• Do you rank Ohio State ahead of USC?
• How can you not rank FSU ahead of BYU?
• How high do you rank the young Canes?
• What’s more important how you lost, or how you won?

As always comments are appreciated and like last week will be integrated into the final ballot that I have to submit Tuesday night.

Just a reminder, here’s the criteria that I’m using

The prior Top 25 will have no significant impact on the new one. Teams won’t hold positions playing scrubs in OOC play over teams with real wins in September. Just because a team is 18th doesn’t mean it moves up because the 17th ranked team loses. Teams resumes will go up and down as the season goes on.

So here’s the Preseason TaW Top 25.

This Top 25 will be updated every Sunday night of the college football season.

The prior Top 25 will have no significant impact on the new one. Teams won’t hold positions playing scrubs in OOC play over teams with real wins in September. Just because a team is 18th doesn’t mean it moves up because the 17th ranked team loses.

So here’s the first one, and be sure to let me know in comments how badly you disagree.

1. UF : Why? Absolutely loaded on both sides of the ball and they don’t play Mississippi in the regular season.
2. OU: Why? And the real question is why over Texas? Fortunately this matchup will get settled on the field. Right now OU’s weakest point is interior OL which is matched against UT’s weakest point DT. So that’s a push.  They cancel each other out. Just like OU’s strength at DT is relatively matched by UT’s interior OL strength. Meanwhile OU has significant advantages at CB, TE, RB, DE (Kindle is good but OU has 3 battle tested DEs) and TE, while positions like LB, WR,OT and finally QB are relatively even.
3. UT: Why, see number two.
4. Va Tech: Why? Best team in ACC and they have a loaded offense for the first time in while. You know that the D will be solid. This prediction could come flying off the rails with significant early tests.
5. Ohio State: Why? Big Ten sucks and they clearly have the best talent in the conference. This is a projection based on them beating SC at the Horseshoe
6. Oregon: Why? They return the bulk of their offensive firepower and get SC at Eugene where as Sooners fans know all too well anything can happen. Also, they have an elite OOC schedule to test how good they are.
7. USC: Why? New QB and rebuilding front seven I think leads to a game where they get gashed by the run (like Oregon State last year) and their new QBs struggle with road games.
8. TCU: Why? Quite simply, no OU on their schedule. They return a bunch of pieces and play great defense. Honestly, they were a real FG kicker away from playing Bama in the Sugar Bowl instead of Utah.
9. Mississippi: Why? Best returning talent in the SEC East, and they don’t have to play Florida. They are not higher because let’s see how this team does being the hunted.
10. Alabama: Why? New QB, new OL, new RB and that was what worked for them last year. Things may gel, but they get an early test versus Va Tech which will decide a lot.
11. Oklahoma State: Why? Until proven otherwise they don’t play defense against top ten teams. Also, they have an early test versus UGa which will either drop them or vault them in the rankings.
12. Penn State: Why? Second best talent in the Big Ten. Big Ten is clearly the easiest conference to go undefeated in. Seriously, put OU or UT in the Big Ten and tell me you are not putting them in the title game immediately.
13. Georgia Tech: Why? Year two is supposed to be when Paul Johnson’s offense will really click. He’s got a top five RB in Dwyer, and although the defense has some holes he has a lot of elite talent over there (DE Derrick Morgan)
14. Boise State: Why? Really easy schedule and they are returning their QB. They have one real game versus the BCS in September at Oregon. Win and they stay in the Top 15, lose and I may not rank them again all year.
15. Utah: Why? They went undefeated last year and return a lot of talent. They have to play TCU in Fort Worth – a game that could again decide a BCS slot. Oregon game in September could easily vault Utah into the top ten
16. Cal: Why? Jahvid Best.
17. Georgia: Why? No team has been devastated by injuries more than UGa last year. They have a veteran upperclassman to replace Stafford and host of blue chip backs to replace Moreno. OSU game maybe the best OOC matchup of September
18. LSU: Why? Massive amounts of talent and they might have found a QB who is not Captain Pick Six.
19. Oregon State: Why? Returning a lot of talent on offense
20. Kansas: Why? And more to the point why are they here over Nebraska? Two names, Todd Reising and Dezmon Briscoe. KU has the best returning QB/WR corps in the Big 12 North and it’s not even close.
21. FSU: Why? After what is almost of a decade of underachieving QBs, FSU appears to finally have one in Christian Ponder.
22. USF: Why? Someone has to win the Big East.
23. Boston College: Why? I briefly forgot they were not in the Big East.
24. Michigan State: Why? Nice amount of talent, they appear to be gelling under new head coach Mark Dantonio in his second year. Just need to settle on a QB.
25. Notre Dame: Why? They have a incredibly easy schedule save for USC. They return their QB, top WRs (Tate and Floyd are legit talents).

Location: Baltimore, Md.
Founded: 1867
Enrollment: 7,500
Colors: Blue and Orange
Coach: Todd Bozeman
Home Court: Hill Field House
Capacity: 4,250
Record: (23-11, 17-3 MEAC)

The Bears will be playing the first NCAA tournament game in school history when they tip off against the Sooners at 8:40 p.m. (Oklahoma time) Thursday night. They’ve won two straight MEAC titles in a league dominated by the likes of Coppin State, North Carolina A&T and South Carolina State. They’re led by a backcourt tandem of All-MEAC guard Reggie Holmes (16.9 ppg) and the MEAC’s leading assist man, the diminutive (5’9″) Jermaine Bolden. Holmes and Bolden combined for 38 points in the MEAC tournament championship win over Norfolk State.

Like just about anybody OU will play in the country, the Sooners will have a big advantage in the frontcourt. They’re led by second-team all-conference forward Marquise Kately, who averages 11 ppg. However, at 6’5″, he’ll be relegated to watching Blake score over him all night if he’s forced to guard the Terminator. 6’8″ sophomore forward Kevin Thompson scored 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in the MEAC title game and will more likely get the inglorious pleasure of appearing in Blake’s game highlight reel. The Bears will bring 6’10″ sophomore Rodney Stokes off the bench to help counter the huge mismatch in the post.

The biggest intrigue with Morgan State is third-year head coach Todd Bozeman. Boze took over at Cal midway through the season in 1993 and guided the Berkeley Bears to three straight NCAA appearances, including a Jason Kidd-led, shocking upset of Duke in the ’93 tournament, landing them in the Sweet 16. The ugliness of college basketball caught up with him, though, as he was fired amidst a sexual harassment allegation and an NCAA violation of paying Jelani Gardner’s parents $30K. As a result, Cal was banned from the NCAA tournament for a year, had to forfeit wins from Boze’s last two years and the school had to pay back $200K to the NCAA from revenues generated in the ’96 tournament. Part of the punishment was also an eight-year show-cause for anybody who wanted to hire Bozeman. That led to 10 years in the wilderness, part of it serving as a Pfizer pharmaceutical rep. Morgan State finally took a chance on him and he’s rewarded the school with the two straight MEAC titles and this year’s first-ever NCAA berth.