2008 Post Spring Aggregate College Football Poll

Posted: May 15th, 2008 | Filed under: Last Decade | 1 Comment »

I created this list by combining the post spring pre-season rankings of Mark Schlabach, Dennis Dodd, Gary Lloyd , Matt Hayes , The Star Telegram, and David Gladow into one poll. Points were distributed in the same fashion that they are awarded for the actual AP and Coaches polls, which is 25 for a 1st place vote, 24 for a 2nd, and so on down the line. If you are curious as to how each individual journalist voted then click the links above.

The idea here isn’t to come back and bash these opinions 8 months from now. I put this together to give myself an idea of what the general consensus is as to who the best teams are heading into 2008. I realize that 6 is an extremely small sample size, and I guess I could have stayed up all night looking at polls, but after reading six takes it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to find much disagreement at the top.

My opinion is noticeably absent from the mix. I didn’t want to skew the data with my overly-aggressive take. My viewpoints will be put on the table over the next couple of months. Included in the chart are the current national championship odds for each team at 3 different books. The best price has been bolded for all you line shoppers out there.

Rank/Team Points Greek Odds 5 Dimes Carib Average 1) Ohio St 147 12-1 10-1 8-1 10-1 2) Georgia 145 10-1 9.25-1 7-1 9-1 3) USC 136 3-1 3-1 3-1 3-1 4) Oklahoma 133 10-1 8-1 6-1 8-1 5) Missouri 127 15-1 18-1 15-1 16-1 6) Florida 111 6.5-1 6-1 6-1 6-1 7) Texas 108 12-1 14-1 25-1 17-1 8. LSU 99 18-1 18-1 12-1 16-1 9) West Virginia 98 20-1 15-1 20-1 18-1 10) Clemson 95 20-1 25-1 40-1 28-1 11) Kansas 88 33-1 40-1 75-1 49-1 12) Auburn 72 20-1 30-1 50-1 33-1 13) Texas Tech 71 50-1 60-1 100-1 70-1 14) Arizona St 71 40-1 45-1 100-1 62-1 15) Wisconsin 65 30-1 40-1 75-1 48-1 16) Virginia Tech 65 15-1 18-1 40-1 24-1 17) Illinois 62 30-1 33-1 50-1 38-1 18) BYU 62 Not Listed Not Listed Not Listed Not Listed 19) Tennessee 41 30-1 40-1 100-1 57-1 20) Oregon 32 60-1 60-1 200-1 107-1 21) Pittsburgh 28 Not Listed Not Listed Not Listed Not Listed 22) Wake Forest 17 100-1 95-1 100-1 98-1 23) Fresno St 17 Not Listed Not Listed Not Listed Not Listed 24) Penn St 15 50-1 40-1 50-1 47-1 25) Michigan St 15 80-1 85-1 100-1 88-1

Others Receiving Votes: South Florida 11, Uconn 7, Virginia 4, Alabama 3, South Carolina 2, Miss St 1, Florida Atlantic 1, Cincinnati 1

No Michigan. No Miami of Florida. No Florida St. No Nebraska. No Notre Lame. Not a single vote for any of those wobegone powerhouses. Welcome to 2008.

Ohio St and Georgia are basically 1A/1B in these guys minds. Neither team was rated lower than 3rd, and each was only rated 3rd once. The Top 5 is also very firmly set with #6 Florida clocking in well behind #5 Missouri.

Interestingly enough the odds makers, and the people who may have already bet into these odds, prefer #3 USC and #6 Florida to Georgia and Ohio St. The game in L.A. on September 13th between USC and Ohio will easily be the biggest non-conference game of 2008. It is going to be HUGE. So big in fact that I heard ESPN already has Corso, Hebrstreit, and Fowler setting up shop outside of the Coliseum.

The biggest disagreement occurred over defending national champion LSU. Gladow had them 5th while Dodd had them rated the lowest at 16th. This has a lot to do with the recent exodus of Ryan Perrilloux. It is anyone’s guess how much this will effect the Tigers going forward. I also think a lot of journalists feel obligated to rate reigning champions higher than their actual merits may otherwise suggest.

Kansas, Auburn, Texas Tech, Arizona St, Clemson, Virginia Tech, and Penn St were also all rated across very broad ranges. For as consistent as 1-5 were, the bottom 20 were a total cluster fuck.

I guess this is to be expected. I guarantee you that each of these writers spent more time on 1-5 than they did on 6-25. That is just the way these polls work. Every pundit wants to call the national champion in advance. Nobody cares about being the guy who correctly identified the 24th best team in the country all the way back in May.

The line jockeys are giving Virginia Tech and Penn St a whole lot more respect than the voters did. You can inverse that for Texas Tech and Kansas. The histories, and in turn the betting tendencies, of these four programs certainly has something to do with this though.

I am not going to discuss the odds of any one individual team right now as I will be covering the top teams one by one starting tomorrow.

The Greek is the place to post up if you are looking to get behind a favorite, while those looking to back Mizzou should head over to 5 Dimes. As usual Carib provides the best odds on the long shots. Must be nice to be able to play there. I will be posting an update on my own personal situation with Carib sometime this weekend.

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