The 2011 Dubsism Pre-Season College Football Rankings

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. There is a rule in the blogosphere that says if you tag more than three posts with “college football,” you are required to do a pre-season ranking. Failure to do so will get your nose flayed and your genitals set on fire.

With that…teams are rated within their conference, and the conferences are ranked in order of overall strength.

Plus, since here at Dubsism we are believers in the yin and yang of things, we felt it necessary not only to do the obligatory Top 25 list, but a comprehensive list as well. Why? Because for every team that should be admired for its prowess, there is one that should be pitied for its ineptitude.

Independents:

Unfortunately for BYU, she's talking about winning.

This used to be that special category for Army, Navy, and that school in Indiana that used to mean something.  But this year finds a new addition, Mormon Notre Dame Brigham Young.  One thing the folks at BYU are going to discover is that unless you are Notre Dame, it’s going to be hard scheduling favorably. This is why BYU could find itself starting 0-4 and may find itself with only four wins total.

Making the move to being an independent may spell doom for BYU football. Aside from the scheduling issue, the TV network they have started in essentially unwatchable unless you are considering actually becoming a Mormon. But more importantly, they wll never get invited to a good bowl game because nobody can make any money off BYU fans. They don’t travel well, and when they do, they don’t spend money.

A few years back Penn State was selected for a bowl game appearance over BYU despite the fact BYU had a better record. When confronted by angry BYU officials the bowl’s representative allegedly replied “Penn State fans come early, stay late, and have a good time. BYU fans show up with two things: a $50 bill and the Ten Commandments, and at the end of the day, they haven’t broken either one.”

Now let’s talk about things that haven’t changed. Every year, Notre Dame gets more attention than they deserve; a phenomenon that continues up to that point when the Irish get such a crushing loss that every the most ardent Notre Dame fan has no choice but to admit they simply aren’t very good. Even though the Irish have their typically soft schedule, the hype really should be over by the third quarter of the USC game.

1. Navy
2. Notre Dame
3. Army
4. Brigham Young

11) Sun Belt Conference

Let’s face it… somebody’s got to be the “little brother.” Welcome to the Sun Belt. If you  are a major power looking to pad its non-conferennce schedule, the Sun Belt has so many cupcakes is should be called the “Bakery” conference.

But don’t laugh. Even if they are the last car in the train, the Sun Belt is still a Football Bowl Subdivision participant, which is prestigious relative to the majority of other college football programs in America. Let’s be honest, members of the Sun Belt feast on that status; an all-you-can-eat buffet of major conference transfers, “big money” road dates against big-conference schools looking for the aforementioned “cupcakes,” which leads to modest but relatively large football budget.

The Troy Trojans have been the head cupcake, capturing five straight Sun Belt titles while participating in three straight bowl games including last year’s drubbing 48-21 of Ohio in the New Orleans Bowl. However, parity remains a theme in this conference since no Sun Belt school had less than two conference losses last year.

But this looks to be the season in which a new head cupcake emerges. Florida International looks to take the top spot in a season finding three schools with new coaches — Louisiana-Lafayette, North Texas, and Arkansas State.

1. Florida International
2. Troy
3. Arkansas State
4. Louisiana-Monroe
5. Middle Tennessee
6. North Texas
7. Western Kentucky
8. Florida Atlantic
9. Louisiana-Lafayette

10) WAC

Properly stored, even dishes subject to quick spoilage like Utah State can be kept fresh for months.

By this time next year, the WAC may officially change its name to the “Leftovers Conference. The marquee program (Boise State) has already departed in favor of the Mountain West Conference, and next year, Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii, will make the same move. I really don’t know what else to say about a conference that is on the road to irrelevance. This conference will put a couple of teams into a couple low-end bowl games; unless you are a hard-core college football junkie, there’s no real reason to pay attention to this league.

1. Fresno State
2. Hawaii
3. Idaho
4. Louisiana Tech
5. Nevada
6. New Mexico State
7. San Jose State
8. Utah State

9) Conference USA

This conference reminds me of an NBA All-Star game. Everybody can score and nobody plays defense.  Houston and Tulsa have the ability to hang 60 points on on any given Saturday. Last season, C-USA had at least three teams in the Top 20 for touchdowns scored, total yards, rushing yards, passing yards,  and points scored. The top six teams in C-USA averaged 35.5 points per game last year.

Naturally, it can be said that a conference with such offensive output would have some seriously weak defenses…and it would be correct to say that. Most of the defenses in this league “couldn’t stop a nosebleed” and are perfectly represented by East Carolina. The Pirates were at the bottom in nearly every defensive statistic and were joined by three other C-USA members in the bottom 20.

In other words, expect a lot of 50-45, four-and-a-half hour conference games, and don’t expect anybody below Southern Methodist to be on your radar in November.

1. Houston
2. Tulsa
3. Southern Mississippi
4. Central Florida
5. Alabama-Birmingham
6. Southern Methodist
7. East Carolina
8. Rice
9. Marshall
10. Tulane
11. Memphis
12. Texas-El Paso

8 ) MAC

How many other College Football Previews will give you a Charles Nelson Reilly reference?

This season, the MAC might as well be renamed “meh.” Their will be its usual creative play-calling, but don’t expect any teams from this league to make a miracle run to the top 25.

1. Toledo
2. Northern Illinois
3. Temple
4. Miami (OH)
5. Ohio
6. Western Michigan
7. Central Michigan
8. Kent State
9. Akron
10. Bowling Green
11. Ball State
12. Buffalo
13. Eastern Michigan

7) Big East

Let’s be honest. This is a basketball conference. Only three programs flirted with the pre-season rankings last year, and none were found there at the end when it matters. That won’t change this season. Pittsburgh and West Virginia underperformed, which allowed a team with a serious “meh” factor (Connecticut) to get into the BCS. Pittsburgh and West Virginia both had coaching changes with some serious drama. Rutgers imploded after Eric LeGrand was paralyzed.

That is exactly why the Big East wants to look forward. This league is in serious need of a credibility infusion and the hope is that comes in the form of  new league member (starting in 2012) TCU, and second-year coaches Skip Holtz at South Florida and Charlie Strong at Louisville.

1. West Virginia
2. South Florida
3. Pittsburgh
4. Connecticut
5. Cincinnati
6. Louisville
7. Rutgers
8. Syracuse

5) ACC

This conference is a bit of a train wreck. Florida State and Virginia Tech are the two best programs, but then after that you have the who-knows-what Miami Hurricanes, a North Carolina team deep in the NCAA’s doghouse, and Georgia Tech on probation.

Only one ACC team has won a BCS game in the last dozen years, and an early Florida State test against Oklahoma should tell us a lot about either side.

1. Florida State
2. Virginia Tech
3. Miami (FL)
4. North Carolina
5. Maryland
6. Clemson
7. Boston College
8. North Carolina State
9. Georgia Tech
10. Virginia
11. Wake Forest
12. Duke

4) Big 12

This is soon to be another “leftovers” conference,” what’s left of the conference exists only to bask in the reflected glory of Texas and Oklahoma. Nebraska and Colorado are already gone, Texas A&M is as good as gone, and Oklahoma passed on the opportunity to join the Pac-12 last year. This conference may be a memory soon, but we should have at least one more opportunity to watch Oklahoma choke.

1. Oklahoma
2. Oklahoma State
3. Texas A&M
4. Missouri
5. Texas
6. Baylor
7. Texas Tech
8. Kansas State
9. Iowa State
10. Kansas

2) Big 10

Forget about Nebraska, the real story in the Big Ten just may be that the three traditional powers in Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State could all have a dropoff.  Ohio State is in the middle of its NCAA drama, Michigan has a new coach for the second time in four years, and Penn State has some major question marks on offense. There’s no telling how all those situations may shake out. For sure one of those three will take a step backward, and possibly all three. It matter little in terms of who will be at the top in the end; this seems to be Wisconsin’s league to lose.

1. Wisconsin
2. Nebraska
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan State
5. Penn State
6. Iowa
7. Michigan
8. Northwestern
9. Illinois
10. Purdue
11. Indiana
12. Minnesota

1) SEC

The Post-Urban Meyer SEC is the best conference in college football. From the day Pope Urban I landed in Gainsville, the SEC transformed into a juggernaut which has won the last five BCS titles. changed when Urban Meyer took his coaching talents to Gainesville.

It’s almost heresy now in college football to point out the days when nobody, and I mean NOBODY thought the spread offense would thrive in the SEC.  But it didn’t take long for Pope Urban I to win a host of apostles. Within a couple of years, the SEC was no longer a league of jurassic, knuckle-walker offenses and defenses which came with their own coroner.

In 2006, only one team in the league averaged more than 30 points per game. Four years later, that number had increased to seven, and ten averaged 29 or better.  It happened because those teams all used some sort of spread offense. Even the cro-magnon leather helmets in Tuscaloosa dabbled in something other than a tailback-based attack.

This is the bottom line. The SEC has more talent and more good coaches, it’s that combination that makes this league likely to win a sixth BCS title.

1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. South Carolina
4. Arkansas
5. Auburn
6. Mississippi State
7. Georgia
8. Florida
9. Tennessee
10. Kentucky
11. Mississippi
12. Vanderbilt

Overall Rankings

1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Oregon
4. Wisconsin
5. LSU
6. Nebraska
7. Florida State
8. Boise State
9. Stanford
10. Oklahoma State
11. South Carolina
12. Texas A&M
13. Virginia Tech
14. Arkansas
15. TCU
16. USC
17. Ohio State
18. Michigan State
19. Auburn
20. Mississippi State
21. Missouri
22. Georgia
23. Florida
24. Penn State
25. Arizona State
26. Iowa
27. West Virginia
28. Utah
29. Air Force
30. Miami (FL)
31. South Florida
32. Pittsburgh
33. Navy
34. North Carolina
35. Toledo
36. Tennessee
37. Notre Dame
38. Michigan
39. Arizona
40. Maryland
41. Northern Illinois
42. Northwestern
43. Fresno State
44. Houston
45. Texas
46. Oregon State
47. Temple
48. Florida International
49. Southern Mississippi
50. Washington
51. Central Florida
52. Baylor
53. San Diego State
54. Kentucky
55. Illinois
56. Texas Tech
57. Miami (OH)
58. Hawaii
59. Cincinnati
60. Clemson
61. Mississippi
62. Purdue
63. UCLA
64. Boston College
65. Ohio
66. Troy
67. California
68. Army
69. North Carolina State
70. Colorado State
71. Louisville
72. Colorado
73. Western Michigan
74. Arkansas State
75. Idaho
76. Central Michigan
77. Alabama-Birmingham
78. Georgia Tech
79. Vanderbilt
80. Louisiana Tech
81. Southern Methodist
82. Rutgers
83. Wyoming
84. Indiana
85. Brigham Young
86. Kansas State
87. Kent State
88. Virginia
89. Tulsa
90. Wake Forest
91. Syracuse
92. Akron
93. East Carolina
94. Nevada
95. Rice
96. Louisiana-Monroe
97. Minnesota
98. Iowa State
99. Bowling Green
100. Bowling Green
101. Marshall
102. Kansas
103. Duke
104. Washington State
105. Nevada -Las Vegas
106. Ball State
107. Tulane
108. New Mexico State
109. Middle Tennessee
110. Connecticut
111. Buffalo
112. North Texas
113. San Jose State
114. Memphis
115. Western Kentucky
116. Texas-El Paso
117. Florida Atlantic
118. Utah State
119. Louisiana-Lafayette
120. Eastern Michigan

About J-Dub

What your view of sports would be if you had too many concussions

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8 comments on “The 2011 Dubsism Pre-Season College Football Rankings”

1. Diehardsport

   August 19, 2011

   

   Nice post, I definitely like where you have Wisconsin slated. IMO They are a national championship sleeper.

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   Reply
   • JW

     August 20, 2011

     

     I think Wisconsin could easily find themselves in contention for a championship. They will probably need to beat an SEC team to finish it.

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     Reply
2. Bobby Charts

   August 20, 2011

   

   Great work JW, im a huge BUCKEYE fan, so i might be a homer here, but i feel the Buckeyes are going to be better than people think, with that said you do have them ranked 17th overall, so you and the poll shows they be up there. ps i added your blog to my blog roll, keep it up my man.

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   Reply
   • JW

     August 20, 2011

     

     Thanks. Please don’t take any of my shots at Ohio State personally. As A Penn State guy, it’s just my job 🙂

     I added a category to my Blogroll for all of the #SportsBlogMovement.

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     Reply
3. Bobby Charts

   August 21, 2011

   

   LOL, its all good, fire away, I know your a true fan, I can take it, LOL
   Thanks alot for adding SBM as well, were grateful!

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   Reply
4. ChrisHumpherys (@SportsChump)

   August 24, 2011

   

   Looking forward to seeing what Pope Will the First can do in his predecessor’s absence.

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   Reply

5. Pingback: Penn State ’11 – When The Ten That Was Eleven Became Twelve « Dubsism

6. Pingback: Trash-Talking the 2011 Top 25 « Dubsism

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