Via Pat Forde’s Twitter feed, here’s what Phil Steele’s top 25 looks like:
1. Oklahoma; 2. Ohio State; 3. Alabama; 4. TCU; 5. Nebraska; 6. Boise State; 7. Florida; 8. USC; 9. Miami; 10. Oregon; 11. Texas 12. UNC 13. VT 14. Iowa 15. Aub 16. ND 17. Ark 18. Penn St. 19. UGA 20. FSU 21. S. Car. 22. WVU 23. Wisc 24. Hou. 25. Arizona.
Conspicuously absent from that list is the juggernaut on the Flats.
I guess Anthony Allen needs to crank out another video.
Get The Picture 
So Phil is revealing it day by day and Pat tweets the whole thing? Sort of a dick move on Pat’s part. I’ve always thought Pat was pretty good guy. Maybe I’m wrong.
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I concur about it being a dick move revealing it all at once… but I’m going to smoke my Phil Steele crack just the same until I can get my next fix.
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Speaking of crack-smoking:
Miami at #9?
The Pacifist Irish at #16, who lost six and finished with L’s against Navy, Pitt, UConn and Stanford?
Didn’t know Steele was a “traditionalist.”
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You’ve still got to wait for Steele’s blog posts to find out why he ranks them as he does.
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There’s still some drama to the countdown that is now lost. But you’re right; we still have to wait for the meat of it. And I presume Forde had to get the info from somewhere…presumably an advanced copy of the magazine.
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He tweeted that he received an advance copy.
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If I were him I wouldn’t risk being taken off of that list for next year.
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Let’s be real. Phil loves having “stablished” cfb writers cover his book. He loses nothing in this process. The idea that he would cull these writers is silly since he cultivates them.
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Oklahoma at 1 is a shocker. Nebraska at 5 is betting a lot of chips on a yet-to-be-seen offense. Notre Dame at 16? Wait… Arky at 17?! Does Phil not read this blog? For shame.
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Also conspicuously absent is the juggernaut from Baton Rouge.
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At least LSU made Steele’s top thirty…
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Hard to criticize anyone’s pre-season poll because they are all have too many assumptions to be reliable at this point in the year, but I don’t see three teams in the West being ahead of UGA. If he thinks Florida, Arky, and Auburn are better than us it certainly explains us being at #19. I don’t think Auburn is better, we have Arky at home, and Florida will surprise me if they are ahead of us, certainly not that much better.
Of course, rankings are not so much about who is better but the record a team will achieve. I am a PS fan so I am sure he has done a major, in-depth analysis of all the teams and how they will fare against their schedule to arrive at those conclusions. He obviously thinks Oklahoma is stronger than Texas and FSU and will survive Nebraska. If that plays out, OU could very well make it to the top. Ohio State, ND, TCU, Boise, etc., are all pretty well assured of a strong record. Florida and Miami….. not so much, they look to be the most overrated in the Top 10 to me.
If Forde really had access and played this hand without PS’ approval, he is a large turd. I like the daily revealing of teams this time of the year, gives us all some fresh news worthy of discussion.
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I agree with the Miami part. I will be shocked if they win the ACC as it looks like VaTech will be quite good.
Florida at 7 might be a bit high since Strong is gone. I would have said 9-12 range.
No way Bama finishes in top 5.
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I think both UGA and Florida should start in the 12-15 range as they look pretty equal, and the season will place one of them higher. Florida’s schedule is more rugged than UGA and the losses were more critical, imo. Too early to call, but the game in Jax will likely be for the spot in Atlanta.
I don’t agree about Bama, they may not make it to the Top 5 again, but I don’t see even two teams I would bet on against the Tide head-up. They lost some key defensive players but still have great talent available for Saban to work his magic with, and their offense is simply loaded….no questions there for me. I don’t think they make it through the regular season undefeated, but I think 11-1 headed into the SECCG is a good bet.
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All this on an opinion? Forde leaked something that is on the newsstands? I get as pumped up as anyone when UGA gets mentioned in a favorable light, but this is absurd. Steele has a high prognostication ranking, but I’m looking for UGA to finish higher than 19th at the end of the season. When we rate opinions and guesses so high then we are elevating Nostradumbass past Nostharestofus dumbasses from UGA. As a fan group I’ve always felt that we are better than the pundits who are writing this for a living. Hell, I need another tequila before some theople pink I,m under the alcofluence of incohol! GO DAWGS!!
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Interesting that Steele ranks OU #1, and us #19. I’m not complaining about our ranking at all, but take a look at both the Sooners and our results from last season, as well as players coming back, and compare. Hmm…….
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From Matt Hinton:
From an injury standpoint, they had a much more horrendous year than did Georgia and their defense was much better than Georgia’s. I’m not saying things will turn out Steele’s way here, but I can see how you can make a case for it.
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Phil Steele is great for statistical analysis, but his predictions have not been that great especially for the top 25 recently.
He is also a master at covering his own bases. Somewhere he has your team in the top 25 or in top 10 surprises. Either way he his picks covered.
Pretty sure he didn’t have GT in the top 25 last season either.
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Senator,
Wouldn’t it be more fair to compare our record for 2008 with the 2009 record that Oklahoma achieved with an atrocious injury rate ? It continued to affect us last year due to the cross-training needed to fill positions and moving players around to compensate for early losses that threatened us at the beginning of 2009. Wouldn’t it be more fair to say that UGA did great when comparing 2008UGA to 2009OK and the results of this year will say whether OK recovered better than UGA? I ddn’t see the same logic applied to UGA’s yearly prediction by Steele last year.
In addition I see that today Richt feels about this year similarly to what I posted yesterday. I know, Joe Cox…blah, blah, blah etc. isn’t the same as the personnel that Ok has this year, but really! #1? While some writers have said the outlook was influenced entirely by Martinez, I still maintain that circumstances were such with injury crisis overflow and other bad luck that you can’t pin last year on his back. And we won 10 in 2008 vs Ok winning only 8 last year.
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Read Matt’s breakdown of Oklahoma’s wins and losses margins last year. Can you claim anything near that for Georgia in either 2008 or 2009?
In other words, Oklahoma lost four games to top-20 teams by a total of twelve points. In ’08 Georgia got smashed by Alabama and Florida and embarrassed with a collapse at home against Georgia Tech. There’s no comparison.
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Senator, you and others on this blog are always harping about how each season is a stand alone thing and what happened one year is not supposed to mean sh!t about what goes on in another year. That usually comes out when I (or someone else so inclined) points to the fact that UGA dusted LSU by 2 TDs in 2008 as justification for the position that the 2007 UGA team was better than LSU and should have played in the BCSNC game instead of the Tigers. But here, once again, you are pointing to last season’s close losses by OU (compared to a couple of blowouts suffered by the Dawgs) as justification for picking OU to win it all. Which is right? Pick one–I don’t care which–but at least be consistent.
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Mayor, with all due respect, what are you talking about?
I’m not predicting anything. I’m merely responding to Cojones’ comment that Georgia handled its injury situation in 2008 better than Oklahoma did in 2009.
You’re a long time reader here. Surely you know that I don’t think much of preseason projections. That’s why the Mumme Poll doesn’t start until mid-season.
And I will say this – at least we’ll be able to test Steele’s projections against the season’s results. There’s no way to do that with your look back. To illustrate, check your example. The key to Georgia’s 2008 win was Lee throwing two pick-sixes. He never would have seen the field in a 2007 game.
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