Monday, August 10, 2009

Coaches Poll 2009 edition | by Pat

The first edition of the Coaches poll is out and Notre Dame cracked the Top 25 at #23. The month of September will show if ND belongs in the Top 25, but at least it's nice ND gets the benefit of the doubt starting out. As pointed out below, ND and UNC are the only two teams in the Top 25 that ended the 2008 season without any Coaches poll votes.

Here is where our 2009 opponents stand:

4. Southern Cal
27. Michigan State
30. Pittsburgh
40. Nevada
49. Boston College
53. Navy
57. Michigan
The first thing that jumps out is Southern Cal is the only Notre Dame opponent in the Top 25 going into the season. MSU and Pitt are close, but overall the Coaches (or the assistants that filled out their ballots) don't think much of the teams facing ND in 2009. Another interesting note: when was the last time Navy (2 votes) received more pre-season votes than Michigan (1 vote)? Did Charlie vote for Navy? Did Charlie vote for Michigan?

As usual, we took a look at the final Coaches poll from last year and compared it to this year's first to see the big gainers and the big losers in terms of votes received.

biggest gainers

team
09
08 final
diff
9 LSU
917 65 +852
12
Cal 711 116 +595
11 Ok. State 861 480 +381
15 Georgia Tech
559 219 +340
20 UNC 293 0
+293
7
Virginia Tech 1,020 740 +280
10 Ole Miss
889 620 +269
6 Ohio State
1,126 874 +252
23 Notre Dame
194 0 +194
22 Nebraska
236 62 +174
biggest losers

team
09
08 final
diff
18
Utah
404 1,375
-971

Texas Tech 114 867
-753
17
TCU 461 1,114
-653

Missouri
44 549
-505

Cincinnati
90 493
-403
14 Oregon 694 1,011
-317
16
Boise St.
542 809
-267
25
Oregon St.
165 407
-242
13
Georgia 707 904
-197
8
Penn State
988 1,091
-103

One thing that jumps out and isn't terribly surprising is that gainers side is full of BCS conference teams that usually get the benefit of the doubt while many of the non-BCS teams and other non-traditional powers that had great seasons last year will have to prove themselves all over again in 2009. Who are your picks for overrated and underrated?