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A midseason update on our college football predictions -- yes, we were right about almost everything
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Listen to Fred Faour on the Blitz weekdays from 1-3 p.m. on ESPN 97.5 in Houston or catch the Web stream at 975theticket.com
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Before the college football season, we trotted out a unique, well conceived Top 25 that was more than just a preseason poll. It was an attempt to predict how the season would play out and what teams would finish in the Top 25.
We took a lot of heat from fans of specific schools who claimed we were stupid, knew nothing about prognosticating and should basically hang ourselves somewhere to spare the world anymore predictions.
However, as the season creeps closer to the halfway point, many of those predictions are looking pretty darned good.
WHAT WENT WRONG:
1) Alabama is better than we thought. Despite losing a starting QB, RB and two NFL-caliber offensive linemen, the Tide is one of the three best teams in the country. We had them at No. 9. They will finish higher than that.
2) Southern Miss isn't as good as we thought. We had them solidly in the Top 25 at No. 18. They might sneak into the poll later in the season, but they have not looked as good as we expected.
3) We guessed Rutgers would be the Big Est team to emerge, but we had Cincinnati in our top 25. Cincy is the one making the run. Right idea, wrong team. And Big East fan, your conference is still terrible.
4) We thought Boise would lose to Oregon, then run the table. The Broncos are going to win out from here and will be in the hunt for a BCS bowl.
5) We had Iowa at No. 26. They will likely lose, but they will finish ahead of that.
WHAT WENT RIGHT:
1) We are still on course for our Florida-Texas national title game. Yes, a lot of people predicted that before the season. We also said Texas' biggest test would be Oct. 31 at Oklahoma State. That still holds. Longhorns win there, and they are in the title game.
2) We were right that Oklahoma State should be ranked ahead of Oklahoma.
3) We took grief for our "homer" pick of Houston in the top 25. They are No. 17 now.
4) We said Miami would be a major threat this season.
5) We said TCU would be the BCS crashed this year. The Horned Frogs have to get past BYU this week and then Utah, but if so, don't be stunned if they get past Boise and get the at-large bid.
If we could revise anything, it would be to boost Alabama over LSU; the Tide looks better than the Tigers right now. If Tim Tebow doesn't start playing better, the Tide is better than Florida, too.
We would also put Iowa where we have Penn State.
Our conference predictions still look good -- Texas over Nebraska in the Big 12 title game, Southern Miss over UH in C-USA, but Tulsa and East Carolina might wind up there, too.
Regardless, there is a long way to go. But there was a method to the madness.
And it doesn't seem quite so mad anymore, does it?
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