No pressure for Cal Bears - thanks to the so-called 'experts'

September 3, 11:32 AMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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Cal will avoid the spotlight for most of the season.
Photo courtesy of sfophoto/flickr

I've been away for a couple of days, so let me start off by apologizing for that.  It just so happens that I was elected to commissioner of two of my fantasy football leagues and I also run the office pool.  Things have been sort of hectic and so I'm not making excuses about neglecting this space for the last two days.  I just wanted let you know how I let Labor Day weekend turn into Labor Day 'week.'

So Saturday morning, in anticipation of the game, I'm driving around getting supplies for the home opener and listening to Fox Sports radio.  One of the pundits on the radio continues to annoy me, and I just know this guy has never been anywhere west of the Mississippi.  He keeps saying, "The SEC is by far the best conference, the Big 12 is definitely up there with them, and after that there's a steep dropoff with the ACC being third."

The more and more he said it, the more I started to question my knowledge.  It wasn't the first time I'd heard that the PAC-10 wasn't going to be as good this year, but looking at the teams from top to bottom, I still couldn't seem to figure out what all of the pundits were saying.

Through most of the day, I kept seeing scores flash up that didn't seem believable.  Alabama 20, Clemson 3, hmmm...that score later became 34-10.  I kept wondering why Clemson was ranked 9th going into the season, but what do I know?  Miami beat Charleston Southern 52-7...so what?  That's what they should have done.  South Carolina blanked NC State 34-0....well that ACC team doesn't seem so tough. 

After watching Dave Wannstedt destroy every team he's coached and seeing what sort of team he's had at Pitt the past two years, I was really scratching my head that they were ranked, and so many pundits were predicting big things for the Panthers.  I thought maybe I wasn't knowledgeable enough about the Eastern teams.  End result: Bowling Green 27, Pitt 17.  Bowling Green?  This is how the 25th team in the country fares against Bowling Green?  They're not even in a BCS conference!

Why is Ohio State ranked so high every year?  Really, who do they play?  They beat Youngstown State 66-0.  Am I supposed to be impressed that they destroyed a Div II team?  The rest of the Big 10 is equally disgusting.  The only teams that any of them face that are ranked are their own.  It took Michigan State 6 years before they made good on the home-home schedule with Cal.  I'll hand it to them, at least they played some competition OUT of their conference, and a team that wasn't just a patsy.

Michigan lost to Utah, 20th ranked Illinois lost to #6 Missouri, Northwestern beat Syracuse, and I'll even throw in Minnesota's defeat of MAC opponent, Northern Illinois.  After that, you've got Youngstown State, Coastal Carolina, Akron, Maine, and Western Kentucky.  Wow!  Those are real football powers aren't they?  In my opinion, the Big 10 is a joke living off its past and that's why we keep seeing Ohio State getting smacked around in title games.  When are the pollsters and the pundits going to finally get it?

I get it.  Big schools slap the little schools around from time to time.  Cal isn't immune to doing this and I don't think that there is a school that is.  My point is that if you pay attention, you'll see that PAC-10 schools also play top competition too and get little love for it when they do.  #18 Tennessee comes in to L.A. to get beat by unranked UCLA and the story is a great one, but the reality is overshadowed.  The SEC and the PAC-10 are equal and have been for several years.

If the ACC was a conference worth touting, USC wouldn't have crushed Virginia 52-7 and #17 Virginia Tech wouldn't have lost to East Carolina.  East Carolina?  What the heck conference are they in?  Let's see, my search reveals they are in Conference USA.  That's not one of the POWER conferences...is it?

A look at the polls reveals that only one of the unfortunate losers from week one is still ranked.  What's disheartening is that the Cal Bears are still ranked lower than Clemson, Utah, and East Carolina.  Do any of these guys really think that the Bears couldn't crush those three?  They could definitely crush Penn State, but I guess the pollsters had to have at least one big-named team from Pennsylvania in the polls since their beloved Pitt failed so miserably again.

Only one site, oddly enough ESPN, has gotten it right.  In their College Football Power Rankings, they have Cal ranked 23rd.  I can stand behind that ranking.  I don't think that Cal deserves much better than that, just that some of the teams ranked ahead of them in the actual poll definitely don't deserve to be ahead of Cal.  If Cal can continue to improve, and also EARN their way, I'll begin to change my ranking, as everyone should.

One week doesn't make a season, Bears Backers know that after last season, but Cal won't have the high expectations that last year's Bears team had.  They'll remain in the shadows of USC, Arizona State, and even UCLA where Rick Neuheisal and Norm Chow will keep their 'media darling' status shining the light down south.

That may be exactly what the Bears need to win the PAC-10 this season...but what the heck do I know?