Monday, August 08, 2005

Pre-positioning | by Jay

The official preseason USA Today/Coaches Poll came out on Friday. (Quick reminder: the new Harris poll doesn't come out until late September, and the first actual BCS ranking won't be unveiled until October 17th this year). ND opponents in bold.

Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Team (first-place votes)
Southern California (60)
Texas (2)
Tennessee
Michigan
Oklahoma
LSU
Virginia Tech
Miami (Fla.)
Ohio State
Iowa
Florida
Florida State
Georgia
Louisville
Auburn
Purdue
Texas A&M
Arizona State
Boise State
California
Texas Tech
Boston College
Virginia
Alabama
Pittsburgh
Record
13-0
11-1
10-3
9-3
12-1
9-3
10-3
9-3
8-4
10-2
7-5
9-3
10-2
11-1
13-0
7-5
7-5
9-3
11-1
10-2
8-4
9-3
8-4
6-6
8-4
Points
1547
1405
1259
1242
1223
1109
1090
1080
1033
1014
910
879
838
758
723
616
366
304
303
293
247
237
210
194
193
Final '04 rank
1
4
15
12
3
16
10
11
19
8
25
14
6
7
2
NR
NR
20
13
9
17
21
23
NR
NR

Others receiving votes: Fresno State (9-3) 188; Oregon (5-6) 145; Utah (12-0) 103; Georgia Tech (7-5) 88; Wisconsin (9-3) 79; North Carolina State (5-6) 69; Bowling Green (9-3) 63; Penn State (4-7) 44; Colorado (8-5) 40; Minnesota (7-5) 34; UCLA (6-6) 24; Texas-El Paso (8-4) 22; Nebraska (5-6) 21; Kansas State (4-7) 20; South Carolina (6-5) 16; Notre Dame (6-6) 13; West Virginia (8-4) 12; Wyoming (7-5) 12; Clemson (6-5) 9; New Mexico (7-5) 9; Arizona (3-8) 8; Northern Illinois (9-3) 8; Southern Mississippi (7-5) 7; Toledo (9-4) 7; Washington State (5-6) 7; Iowa State (7-5) 6; Michigan State (5-7) 6; Memphis (8-4) 5; Washington (1-10) 4; Miami (Ohio) (8-5) 3; Maryland (5-6) 2; UAB (7-5) 1; Duke (2-9) 1; Kansas (4-7) 1.


Does any other school have as many opponents in the top 25 as does ND? In the top 10? In the top 5?

Some more poll fodder, cribbing from BGI:
Barring something remarkable from the AP voters, 2005 will mark the fourth time in the last six seasons Notre Dame has failed to crack the preseason Top 25. It will also mark the first time since 1963 and 1964 (Ara Parseghian's debut year) that the Irish have gone consecutive seasons without a preseason ranking after going 13 straight years with a preseason ranking from 1987 to 1999.

How the mighty have fallen.

Notre Dame was a mainstay in the AP Poll through the 1960s, the 1970s, the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Its run of 15 straight years listed in the final season rankings (1964-78) is the fifth longest ranking streak all-time. Notre Dame's 14 final rankings in the top five are also fifth all time.

Parseghian may have been unranked to start the 1964 season. But after a 31-7 season-opening win over Wisconsin, Parseghian's Irish cracked the polls at No.9 the next week and remained in the poll in all but two weeks during Parseghian's 11 years and 116 games at Notre Dame.
Yet another similarity between the weather conditions for the debuts of Ara and Charlie. It's going to be hard to crack the poll simply by beating Pitt, but let's hope the rest of it plays out according to script.