Before the season started I made a fanpost  about preseason top ten teams. Now it's time to see how they played out.

1.Ohio State- tOSU finished the season 10-3 with a blowout loss to USC, and two close losses to Penn State and Texas. If they had finished 10-3 without playing Texas, I would have said they were overrated yet again and shouldn't have even been in the top ten. But after watching them give Texas a run for their money in the Fiesta bowl, I feel as though they deserve top ten consideration. Props on finishing strong guys.

2.Georgia- The bulldogs couldn't live up to the hype with 3 losses in 2008, to Georgia Tech, Florida, and Alabama. It seems as though they played like the 2007 longhorns, struggling to find an identity, not showing up to all of their games, keeping inferior teams in it until the end. All in all an overrated team.

3.USC- If not for a slip up in Corvallis, USC would have ended up in the national title game playing UF. The Trojans finished the season off strong with a 38-24 win in the rose bowl. USC finished the season with a 12-1 record and ranked #2 in the nation.

4.Oklahoma- Safe to say this was a disappointing season for the sooners, they lost to Texas 45-35 and lost a fifth straight BCS bowl game to Florida (and to make matters worse, Texas won a BCS game). OU finished the season ranked #5 in the nation, 12-2 and political Big 12 champions.

5.Florida- Urban and the Gators were an extra point away from finishing undefeated and national title winners, as it were, they finished 13-1 national champs. There really wasn't anything special about this team, they played solid defense and good offense.

6.V. Tech- Despite starting out the season 0-1 with a loss to ECU, Va Tech rebounded to win the ACC and win the orange bowl against Big East champion Cincinnati 20-7. They finished the season 10-4 and ranked #14 in the nation.  

7.Missouri- Safe to say this was a disappointing year for the Tigers. They had hope of winning a National title and instead ended up in the Alamo Bowl. They lost to Okie state at home in a defensive struggle, and then got blown out by the longhorns in the following week. They later got handled by Kansas, and dominated by OU in the Big 12 title game, only to go on and win in horrible fashion in the Alamo bowl.

8.West Virginia- A disappointing year for a disappointing team. A lack of a passing game seemed to be the destruction of this team.  West V. finished the season 9-4 and ranked #23 in the AP poll.

9.Texas- Texas started out strong going 7-0 in blowout fashion. However, they seemed flat against okie state, winning a close win 28-24 after failing to put osu away in the fourth. The next week as we all know was a disastrous one, as a poor first half lost this one, although Texas took the lead late only to give it up with 1 second left. Voters took Texas out of the big 12 title and put OU in, only to go on to have UT win its BCS game and OU lose theirs. Texas finished 12-1 and ranked #3 in the nation.

10.Texas Tech- Tech had a good year going 11-2 with a cotton bowl loss (which is great for tech). However they seemed to self implode when the spotlight got on them, going 1-2 in their last 3 games, getting blown out in both of their losses. The Tech defense looked as if it had take it up a notch against Texas and osu, but got exposed in their last three games giving up a combined total of 140 points in their last three games.

Now that we have looked at my pre-season top ten teams, lets look at the post season top ten (keep in mind this is not a formal poll, just my own).

Also, for teams I have written about in previous section, new section may be shorter.

1. Texas- Record:12-1 My opinion may be biased since I am a longhorn, but this team has a legitimate case for #1, after going 12-1 and one second away from getting a chance to go to a mnc game.

2. Florida-  Record: 13-1 Like Texas, Florida has a case for being #1. The reason I don't give it to them is because the lost to a 4 loss team at home. With that said, they are very well coached and I would give them a talent edge over Texas.

3. USC- Record: 12-1 Great season, close games with Arizona and CAL, but domination of the rest. Some might ask "well why Texas ahead of USC when USC destroyed tOSU but Texas beat them by 3?" the answer: because we played a much better Ohio State than USC did, we had a tougher schedule, and we didn't lose to oregon state at home.

4. Utah- Record: 13-0 Why not the undefeated #1? Get in a real conference and then earn #1. I'm not saying the Utes are not good, but until they play with the big boys week in and week out and not once every four years, they don't get #1. But lets not take away from a great season and a terrific bowl win.

5. Oklahoma- Record: 12-2 fell apart in fourth quarter of tough games. Enough talent to beat anybody in the country.

6. Alabama- Record: 12-2 Great regular season and I think that I speak for most of the college football fan base when I say I didn't see Bama being a top ten team for a couple of years to come. Great season, although Saban's last two teams have had trouble closing.

7. Penn State- Record: 11-2 Big ten Champions. Great season that I didn't see coming. If not for a sloppy played game against Iowa, we would have seen Penn State in the national title. At one point in the Rose bowl I thought "wow what a disappointing team", but they really changed my mind when they never quit and really played tell the last whistle was blown. This looks like a team with alot of character and great coaches.

8. Ohio State- Record: 10-3 Again great season, really changed my mind about them and the big 10 in the fiesta bowl when they took it to us in the fourth quarter. blew up Mich state, played Penn State tough.

9. TCU- Record: 11-2 Beat undefeated Boise State in their bowl game. Lost to OU in blowout fashion at the beginning of the season, and lost a close one at the end of the season to undefeated Utah. They solidly beat everyone on their schedule (including 10-2 BYU) except for the two losses and Colorado State. Led the nation in defense.

10. Texas Tech- Record: 11-2 At one point they were playing like the #1 team in the nation, then fell apart. Lost to Ole Miss in the cotton bowl after jumping out to a 14-0 start.

Feel free to make a list of your own top ten teams and critique mine.

mark

Before the season started I made a fanpost  about preseason top ten teams. Now it's time to see how they played out.

1.Ohio State- tOSU finished the season 10-3 with a blowout loss to USC, and two close losses to Penn State and Texas. If they had finished 10-3 without playing Texas, I would have said they were overrated yet again and shouldn't have even been in the top ten. But after watching them give Texas a run for their money in the Fiesta bowl, I feel as though they deserve top ten consideration. Props on finishing strong guys.

2.Georgia- The bulldogs couldn't live up to the hype with 3 losses in 2008, to Georgia Tech, Florida, and Alabama. It seems as though they played like the 2007 longhorns, struggling to find an identity, not showing up to all of their games, keeping inferior teams in it until the end. All in all an overrated team.

3.USC- If not for a slip up in Corvallis, USC would have ended up in the national title game playing UF. The Trojans finished the season off strong with a 38-24 win in the rose bowl. USC finished the season with a 12-1 record and ranked #2 in the nation.

4.Oklahoma- Safe to say this was a disappointing season for the sooners, they lost to Texas 45-35 and lost a fifth straight BCS bowl game to Florida (and to make matters worse, Texas won a BCS game). OU finished the season ranked #5 in the nation, 12-2 and political Big 12 champions.

5.Florida- Urban and the Gators were an extra point away from finishing undefeated and national title winners, as it were, they finished 13-1 national champs. There really wasn't anything special about this team, they played solid defense and good offense.

6.V. Tech- Despite starting out the season 0-1 with a loss to ECU, Va Tech rebounded to win the ACC and win the orange bowl against Big East champion Cincinnati 20-7. They finished the season 10-4 and ranked #14 in the nation.  

7.Missouri- Safe to say this was a disappointing year for the Tigers. They had hope of winning a National title and instead ended up in the Alamo Bowl. They lost to Okie state at home in a defensive struggle, and then got blown out by the longhorns in the following week. They later got handled by Kansas, and dominated by OU in the Big 12 title game, only to go on and win in horrible fashion in the Alamo bowl.

8.West Virginia- A disappointing year for a disappointing team. A lack of a passing game seemed to be the destruction of this team.  West V. finished the season 9-4 and ranked #23 in the AP poll.

9.Texas- Texas started out strong going 7-0 in blowout fashion. However, they seemed flat against okie state, winning a close win 28-24 after failing to put osu away in the fourth. The next week as we all know was a disastrous one, as a poor first half lost this one, although Texas took the lead late only to give it up with 1 second left. Voters took Texas out of the big 12 title and put OU in, only to go on to have UT win its BCS game and OU lose theirs. Texas finished 12-1 and ranked #3 in the nation.

10.Texas Tech- Tech had a good year going 11-2 with a cotton bowl loss (which is great for tech). However they seemed to self implode when the spotlight got on them, going 1-2 in their last 3 games, getting blown out in both of their losses. The Tech defense looked as if it had take it up a notch against Texas and osu, but got exposed in their last three games giving up a combined total of 140 points in their last three games.

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The University of Texas has struck an agreement with Defensive Coordinator Will  Muschamp that will keep him in Austin and eventually lead him to the head coaching position for the Longhorns, Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds said on Tuesday. Details of the contract are still being finalized but it will start with Muschamp's salary being raised to $900,000 on January 1, 2009.

Well, I guess this takes away one option for the huskies. That leaves a number of coaching candidates, but three main ones...

Jim Mora

Mike Leach

Chris peterson

I personally think that you all should take a closer look at Leach, This guy can coach, and if you want to see Carrrol lit up for 500+ yards every year, this is your man.

(And on a side note, I would like to apologize for the horrific spelling, my spell check is broken).

Texas defensive end Brian Orakpo will miss Saturday's game against Baylor as he recovers from a sprained left knee.

Orakpo sustained the injury in the third quarter of the Longhorns' loss at Texas Tech last week. The semifinalist for the Lombardi Award leads the Longhorns with nine sacks, 15 tackles for losses and 23 quarterback hurries. Sophomore Sam Acho will start in his place.

Texas trainer Kenny Boyd also said that part-time starting cornerback Chykie Brown (left ankle) and punter Trevor Gerland (left knee) also will miss Saturday's game. Wide receiver Quan Cosby is listed as probable as he recovers from a back injury sustained against Texas Tech. 

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I have heard from countless Big Ten fans that my team has no defense, thats just not true. I would like to see Penn States slow defense try to keep up with the likes of crabtree... And there is a reason that the Big Ten is "looked down on"... All I can say is, win out, got to the MNC, and kick some ass (unless it turns out to be Texas). If you don't like being the "underrated Conference of the nation" then do something about it. I happen to like Penn State for the most part, Mainly because my brother is a huge penn state fan and couldn't be more delighted with the season Joe Pa is having.

I have read much of your open thread and just want to say from the comments I have read, my team is better than what they looked like last night. The first half was abysmal, the offense wasn't working, tech dominated time of possession, our D-Line and O-line was getting dominated. We were on the road, on national spotlight and getting our asses kicked, and still... Our boys had it in em to fight back, and yes in the game lose, but lose with class. I cannot stress enough how proud I am of my team, I wouldn't trade em for anybody...

With all that being said, go out and kick some SEC ass! Big Ten fans are not the only ones sick of hearing about how "great " the SEC is...

HOOK'EM!

BTW, by now I reckin all of you have seen the polls, and I am just curious, do you think Texas is a top 5 program? Last night we were off our game, particularly on offense (which gave up 9 points).

Alright I know that PB has a college game-day thread going but this game is so huge that I think it deserves its own open thread. Right now (at the half) Alabama is DOMINATING georgia 31-0 at the half. So if Bama wins as big as it looks like, how is this going to shake up the polls/season? Well if anything, ESPN can talk about how this is the best Alabama team ever. Anyway here are the first half stats to gruel over...

                                         Alabama    Georgia

Pick your own top ten  teams for 2008.

1.Ohio State- Last year the buckeyes were a young talented team that made it to the national title for the second year in a row (granted it was a weak college football year, but this year doesn't look to be much better). I figure with that much more experience, if they can get past USC they have an easy schedule to the national title.

2.Georgia-  The bulldogs have a talent loaded team and quite a bit of experience, but they have one of the toughest schedules in the country. They will almost certainly lose one, maybe two games.

3.USC- They have Pete Carroll, need I say more?

4.Oklahoma- Veteran O-line, S. Bradford, Bob stoops, easy schedule. If they can beat Texas, tech and manage not to screw up a game, they could be playing for the national title....again

5.Florida- If Florida can beat Georgia, we might see tebow in the national title again.

6.V. Tech- toughest game is against BC. What more can ya say?

7.Missouri- had a good year last year, if Chase Daniels can keep up what he started Missouri could be dangerous.

8.West Virginia- I would have them rated higher, but with the loss of Rich Rodriguez, they may not be the same team.

9.Texas- Texas has a tougher schedule this year than normal, and has an extremely young defense and no game breakers, but we have an experienced backfield (with the exception of the rb) a soon to be great o-line, and a new fiery coaching staff who can hopefully get the players up for games and come up with an actual defensive scheme.

10.Texas Tech- Michael Crabtree and Graham Harrell will blow away opponents threw the air, and open up the running game. The question is, how will their defense hold up?

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe has repeatedly heard football coaches complain about the attrition caused by dwindling scholarship limits and longer seasons. And he wants to do something about it.

Beebe has proposed a plan that would provide five years of eligibility for college football players. He hopes to gain support before eventually taking his idea to the NCAA Management Council for action.

The proposal would end redshirting in college football and cease the current practice of four seasons of eligibility during a five-year window.

thoughts?