re: USA Today Coaches Pre-Season Poll...LSU No. 16

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Have we been ranked this low in any preseason coaches or AP poll since 2000?

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Not sure if this has been answered yet, just saw it on the first page. But I'm almost positive we were #15 in the preseason poll in 2003. So yeah...

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Have we been ranked this low in any preseason coaches or AP poll since 2000?

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Preseason USA/AP
2001: 17/14
2002: 13/14
2003: 15/14
2004: 3/4
2005: 6/5
2006: 9/8
2007: 2/2
2008: 6/7
2009: 9/11
2010: 16/...

LINK

LINK

Spurrier didnt vote for Duke. Wtf

Just know that with Saban we were beginning to start to be preseason top 10 every year ...

Not so much now. Just saying... I think that speaks volumes.

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2004: #3 Coaches Poll

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We know who the coach was that year also!!
We ended up @ #16 !!!

It has already been said, "It's not where you start but where you finish.

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not sure what the hell Oklahoma is doing in the top 10

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Thats cause you're not very knowledgaeble on the subject. Don't let it get to you.

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Personally, I think the whole Big-10 is annually over-rated

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The Big 10 hasnt been overated in a while. Last year for example

Pre-season

Ohio State 6th
Penn State 11th
Iowa 22nd

Final

Ohio State 5th
Iowa 7th
Penn State 9th
Wisconsin 16th

Tough to call this over-rated

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the only significant team OSU plays outside the Big-10 is Miami

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We play at least one very tough OOC game each year.

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I doubt I would even have Iowa ranked

Wisconsin and Penn St. would have barely made it

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All of these teams finished very strong and all with bowl wins over quality opponents. You would just be wrong on this imo.

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The bulk of the Big-10 doesn't play a meaningful OOC

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I would call it about even with the SEC year in and out. Neither conf schedules too much OOC.

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Who ever does well in division play rises in the rankings regardless of the strength of the conference. The exact opposite happens in SEC play.

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Actually if you read this its not the opposite, its the exact same thing.

However you want to spin it. This isnt a Big 10, SEC argument. If the Big 10 starts out ranked 6,11,22 and finishes 5,7.9,16 then they werent overated pre-season.

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I agree the Big-10 did well in bowls last year, but in the previous years they stunk. The big question is whether this last year was a "return to form" or a "statistical aberration". Based on the difficulties Big-10 teams had with lower echelon teams, I'm inclined to believe the latter. As I said, this is a question of conference strength as a whole more than anything else, so the end of the regular season was rather meaningless except for determining where you fit in the conference pecking order

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Ive tried but can't really understand this argument. The fact is that last years Big 10 was one of our best in awhile. Our 4 best teams looked very good in the Bowls against 4 very good opponents. Even #5 Northwestern and Michigan State looked good.

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...And when I say what I would do, you really can't say I'm wrong.

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Good point!!

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I would call it about even with the SEC year in and out. Neither conf schedules too much OOC.

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True. The difference here is that the SEC has been consistently good in bowl games over the last few years. So you know the conference is strong.

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If the Big 10 starts out ranked 6,11,22 and finishes 5,7.9,16 then they werent overated pre-season.

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It means no such thing. It could just as easily mean they were more over-rated at season end.

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Ive tried but can't really understand this argument. The fact is that last years Big 10 was one of our best in awhile. Our 4 best teams looked very good in the Bowls against 4 very good opponents. Even #5 Northwestern and Michigan State looked good.

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I already agreed that you did well in bowls last year (much better than I expected), but doesn't mean you can dismiss the rest of the season. The Big-10 looked very unimpressive against their non-BCS foes.

In my opinion, Wisconsin, Penn State, and Iowa are roughly equal to Georgia, South Carolina, Auburn, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and even Kenutucky. I don't see much separating those teams. By the end of the year most of those SEC teams will be 7-5 because they will beat each other up. Meanwhile those Big-10 teams will end up 10-2 as they feast on Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, and Minnesota. That's like 5 automatic wins (or at least should be). Add in 3 cupcakes to each schedule and that's 8 near automatic wins.

As I said, last year the Big-10 did reasonably well in bowl games. It wasn't by any means domination, but that was their best showing in years. I'm inclined to think that was an aberration and they will resume stinking it up this year. Frankly, on average the Big-10 might not be as good as the Big East (though it is better at the top).

I mean no offense here. tOSU is a very good team, but they aren't getting any help from the rest of the conference. There's really not a whole lot of difference between teams #7 through #25, but tOSU is closer to these teams than it is to teams #1 through #6.

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If actual results dont mean anything I dont think we are going to be able to come to an agreement on this!

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lol. I think that results mean something, but I prefer the results of games to polls. I will agree that we are not going to agree, and as a fan of a Big-10 team I wouldn't expect you to agree.

I would watch those OOC games very closely. If too many Big-10 teams end up in dogfights against the MAC it is a very bad sign for you. tOSU vs. Miami should be a fun one though. Apart from tOSU having the home field it looks pretty even to me. If tOSU is deserving of their ranking they should knotch a double digit win.