Weak top 10

btowngopher

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Is it just me or is the top ten not very remarkable this year? I know UGA has an amazing defense, but other than that seems like a ton of warts on these teams.
 

yes it's gonna be a mess come December
Heck Coastal Carolina is #15
 

College football is just weird this year. I mean if you told me Clemson, USC, Wisconsin, Washington, and UNC would all suck, I'd be just as shocked if you told me Kentucky, Oregon State, Arizona State, Ole Miss, BYU, Michigan State, Michigan, Baylor, and Wake Forest were at or near the top of their conference or division.

The transfer portal and covid tilted the college football world off of it's axis.
 

College football is just weird this year. I mean if you told me Clemson, USC, Wisconsin, Washington, and UNC would all suck, I'd be just as shocked if you told me Kentucky, Oregon State, Arizona State, Ole Miss, BYU, Michigan State, Michigan, Baylor, and Wake Forest were at or near the top of their conference or division.

The transfer portal and covid tilted the college football world off of it's axis.
Will things be normal again is the question. Or will the transfer portal really mess things up?
 



Is it just me or is the top ten not very remarkable this year? I know UGA has an amazing defense, but other than that seems like a ton of warts on these teams.
The parity in college football is much better this year than in previous years. For the last few years you could basically fill out the CFP bracket before the season started but that won't be the case this year.

In regards to the top 10 specifically, the only true pretender in that group is Michigan State. I don't get the hype with that team at all. They jumped up in the polls by beating a way overhyped Miami team. Outside of that they have essentially played one other team with a pulse at all on defense in Nebraska and Nebraska dominated them for most of that game until their punter decided to kick the ball to the wrong side of the field allowing MSU to get a punt return TD, force overtime and eventually win.

MSU might be top 25 worthy but top 10 with that team is a joke. Maybe they will prove me wrong when they play Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State but I just don't see it.
 

I believe in the first couple weeks the top 10 took more losses than ever.


Granted there were more matchups too...
 

I believe in the first couple weeks the top 10 took more losses than ever.


Granted there were more matchups too...
This also underscores the foolishness of pre-season rankings. I get why they do it, so that they can hype up those early season matchups, but the one thing they got right with the CFP and the old BCS rankings was waiting until week 8 or whatever to put out the first rankings.

At least by that point most of the pretenders have fallen by the wayside.
 

This also underscores the foolishness of pre-season rankings. I get why they do it, so that they can hype up those early season matchups, but the one thing they got right with the CFP and the old BCS rankings was waiting until week 8 or whatever to put out the first rankings.

At least by that point most of the pretenders have fallen by the wayside.
I think it shows the foolishness of rankings top 10 vs top 10 ... but otherwise the top rankings tend to be ... fairly accurate.

And really a lot of the rankings / folks voting I think are about "should" and not head to head predictions.... or they're actually predictions themselves.

Playoff type scenarios sometimes aren't even what they're ranking.

It's weird.
 



The parity in college football is much better this year than in previous years. For the last few years you could basically fill out the CFP bracket before the season started but that won't be the case this year.

In regards to the top 10 specifically, the only true pretender in that group is Michigan State. I don't get the hype with that team at all. They jumped up in the polls by beating a way overhyped Miami team. Outside of that they have essentially played one other team with a pulse at all on defense in Nebraska and Nebraska dominated them for most of that game until their punter decided to kick the ball to the wrong side of the field allowing MSU to get a punt return TD, force overtime and eventually win.

MSU might be top 25 worthy but top 10 with that team is a joke. Maybe they will prove me wrong when they play Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State but I just don't see it.
Yeah. Michigan state should probably be down at 15-20 with wake forest

They did beat two programs that were top 20 in the 90s though (Miami and Nebraska)
 

2020 led to a bunch of teams having "breakout year" (Iowa State, Indiana and North Carolina) all had at least one great offensive weapon that could take advantage of Covid defenses. In 2021 where teams have more time to practice and develop teams like this are falling apart. What we are seeing now are teams winning that are put together teams wisely. They took advantage of the 5th year and transfer portat and play in a well-rounded way (solid offense and defense). Teams like KY, Wake, Mich St., Iowa all seem to demonstrate this. I don't think these teams can have the chops to compete against the top talent teams, but they are coached well enough where they might. should be interesting year and would have been a good one to have a twelve team playoff with.
 

Will things be normal again is the question. Or will the transfer portal really mess things up?
We should definitely hope not, its a good thing for us when traditional powers get knocked down a peg. More parity is college football is great for the Gophers.
 

The extra year of eligiblity has leveled the playing field a bit too. Blue bloods are replacing kids leaving for the NFL while a lot of programs are trotting out 5th/6th year guys.
 






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