College Football Handicapping: Most Overrated Team In Each Conference
by Trevor Whenham - 10/13/2011
Last week I looked at the most overrated college football teams in the country. I was happy with my choices, though some other people clearly weren’t. This week I want to go a step further and look at the most overrated team in each of the six major conferences:
ACC
It has to be either Georgia Tech or Clemson since they are the only ranked teams in the conference. Of those two the choice is obvious.
Clemson has played a brutal schedule — Auburn, Florida State, at Virginia Tech — and come out unscathed. Impressive.
Georgia Tech, on the other hand, has really played no one. Their last four games have been their toughest, and since those have been against Kansas, North Carolina, NC State and Maryland, they haven’t exactly been challenged.
Except for the Kansas game, all three games have been pretty close, too. The back end of the Georgia Tech football schedule is dramatically tougher, and it’s hard to believe that they will survive without some real setbacks. There is absolutely no way that this is the 12th best team in the country.
SEC
Last week I said that LSU was overrated, and I stand by it. It’s not that I don’t respect them — I really do. I just don’t think that the LSU football schedule has been as impressive as it seems, and I really don’t like their QB situation.
There is one big reason I think they are overrated, though. There is absolutely no reason for them to have been voted ahead of Oklahoma given how impressive the Sooners have been. The only ways an unbeaten No. 1 team should be passed is if they look bad or if the teams behind them look dramatically better than them.
Neither has been the case here. Simply by the fact that they were voted No. 1 in the AP poll they are overrated.
Big East
West Virginia is the only ranked team in the conference, so it pretty much has to be them. I have no problem with that. They have played just one team with a pulse, and LSU crushed them lifeless. Other than that they haven’t played a team of any caliber.
They have proven absolutely nothing with their play, and the loss raised all sorts of doubts. Is this really the 13th best team in the country? For the sake of the sport I hope not.
Big Ten
Wisconsin is the best team in the Big Ten, and the margin between them and everyone else seems massive. Though they haven’t played a particularly impressive schedule, they passed their biggest test against Nebraska in stunning fashion.
So why is Wisconsin here instead of Michigan — a team that says that they are overrated every time a player or coach gets near a microphone? It’s because of the Coaches’ Poll.
Last week Wisconsin had a bye week. Stanford had a very impressive win against an outmatched Colorado team. Somehow, though, Wisconsin was jumped over Stanford in the poll to move into the fourth spot.
That’s totally nonsensical, and things like that drive me insane. In this case Wisconsin suffers the wrath for the ridiculousness of the Coaches’ Poll.
Pac 12
It’s Oregon all the way here. They have been tested once and they failed miserably against LSU. Since then they have been fine but never dominant — especially defensively.
They should be looking much better than they are against the schedule they have faced. If they hadn’t been so overranked to start the season then they would never still be as high as they are now.
They need to make a statement — like a win at Stanford on Nov. 12 — before I can take them seriously as an elite team this year.
Big 12
Texas is the clear choice here. Last week the Longhorns looked like an incredibly overranked team, and that’s what they played like in their humiliating massacre at the hands of the Sooners.
It showed that the team was badly flawed, had major issues on both sides of the ball, and just wasn’t very good.
Despite a 38-point loss — and that margin of defeat was flattering for them — this team is still ranked. They won’t be ranked after they get crushed by Oklahoma State on Saturday, but the fact that they are in the Top 25 right now is ridiculous.
At this point this team has to be very careful down the stretch just to make sure they are bowl eligible against a very tough schedule. Ranked teams should not have to worry about anything less than winning nine games.
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