USA Today poll

Clemson is overrated, they'll **** the bed like always.

And I don't buy WVU being that high with their new coach.
 
Just ignore the 2nd most overrated team on the list. I shouldn't pound my chest too much, given OU isn't much lower on the list.
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If USC beats tOSU they'll easily be #1....UGA at ASU will be a cool matchup...

1. Georgia 11-2 (22), 3
2. Southern California 11-2 (14), 2
3. Ohio State 11-2 (14), 4
4. Oklahoma 11-3 (3), 8
5. Florida 9-4 (5), 16
6. LSU 12-2 (3), 1
7. Missouri 12-2, 5
8. West Virginia 11-2, 6
9. Clemson 9-4, 22
10. Texas 10-3, 10
11. Auburn 9-4, 14t
12. Wisconsin 9-4, 21
13. Kansas 12-1, 7
14. Texas Tech 9-4, 23
15. Virginia Tech 11-3, 9
16. Arizona State 10-3, 13
17. Brigham Young 11-2, 14t
18. Tennessee 10-4, 12
19. Illinois 9-4, 18
20. Oregon 9-4, 24
21. South Florida 9-4, NR
22. Penn State 9-4, 25
23. Wake Forest 9-4, NR
24. Michigan, 9-4, 19
25. Fresno State , 9-4, NR
 
Does this mean that we are expected to beat Tech to these people. It is interesting how many people think the Tech will beat us this year yet still aren't confident enough about it to rank them higher than us just yet.
 
Last year's final poll had 3 teams that weren't in the preseason top ten (Mizzou, KU, Georgia) and 3 teams were in the preseason top seven that failed to crack the final top fifteen.

In other words, preseason polls remain just about the dumbest wastes of time in all of college football.
 
LSU getting a bump in the preseason poll due to their MNC. In reality, they should probably start closer to 16 than 6. Oh well. They'll come back down to earth soon enough. Texas at 10 seems about right. I had us starting between 8-12. I've thought that Clemson, WVU, and Wisconsin were big question marks, but I'll defer to a later point in the season before passing judgement. Michigan being ranked is...umm...interesting to say the least.
 
Score one for P/C. Georgia has an excellent football team, but a brutal schedule. No team in CFB history could run the table against that gauntlet. Don't forget GT is under new management as well, and their prime directive is to beat UGA.
 
Yeah, I dont think UGA is a "lock" at #1 either. When is the last time you heard UGA #1? 1982? Just doesnt seem right. You'll probably see the winner of the USC and OSU game being the Nat champion or at least in the title game against the winner of the SEC (Not UGA) or BIG 12.
 
I wouldn't say preseason poll are useless. Say if the top 5 team all have comparable sos and all went undefeated or all of them all lose one very close game to a decent opponent the same week. Who do you think have a better chance at playing in the national championship game?
 
The feeling among the Georgia fans is high anticipation of seeing this team take the field, tempered by a realization that the team confronts an absolute monster of a schedule. While some of the national polls/publications are listing the Bulldogs at No.1, closer to home, strangely enough, the outlook is tinged with perhaps a bit more realism. The media who cover SEC football, for instance, a few days ago voted Florida as their choice as SEC East champ.

When you look closely at Georgia’s sked, you do indeed see a very hazardous road. After opening dates at home against Ga. Southern and Central Mich., there are games AT So. Carolina and Arizona St., followed by a game in Athens vs. Alabama. I can easily see a loss popping up in any of those three – in fact, I think it’s likely. Mercifully, there’s an open date following that little three-game sprint, then Georgia hosts Tennessee, which has won its last two times in Athens and has won three of its last four against UGA. Georgia is at Vandy the next week, but then travels to Baton Rouge the next Saturday, THEN spends the following week preparing to go to Jax to face the Gators (A friend of mine says, only partially in jest, that Richt should send LSU a large check, forfeit that one and spend two weeks getting ready for Florida … maybe so). And the final three dates is challenging as well. UK shouldn’t be too tough this year, but the game is in Lexington, so you never know. Then it’s on to Auburn. UGA has beaten Auburn the last two years, and three-game runs by either team in that series are rare … Georgia hasn’t beaten Auburn three straight since 1980-82. Then UGA closes out at home with Ga. Tech, whom they have beaten seven straight. Should the Dogs somehow survive that run well enough to even play for the SEC title, it will be a true feat. Anything beyond that is difficult to imagine.

Richt has his program at a very high level, and he has assembled what could well be his strongest team yet, and it could play quite well this year and end up with 2-4 losses – very easily. Georgia should be a very, very good team this year, but knowing the beating that you take playing a tough SEC sked, I have a tough time seeing them as a probable contender for the national title.
 
Pre-season polls aren't stupid; they exist for our entertainment. Just like college football itself. It's just a game and the polls and all of the idle chatter about it are just part of that game.
 
A lot of recent national championships at the bottom of the overrated/underrated list...

ever heard of regression to the mean?

The top programs have nowhere to go but down. Georgia is an interesting case, because most of their points come from a couple of seasons where no on expected anything from them. Whereas the expecations are ALWAYS high at the teams on the bottom of that list.
 
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