For those of you still researching your predictions, USAToday released their FBS rankings today.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... /31820541/Here's where BC stacks up amongst this year's opponents:
#12. FSU
#13. Clemson
#20. VaTech
#21. Notre Dame
#26. Louisville
#36. Duke
#39. N. Illinois
#44. NCST
#70. Boston College
#88. Syracuse
#116. Wake Forest
Some other notable teams ranked ahead of us:
Air Force, Rice, East Carolina, Houston, Bowling Green, Louisiana-Lafayette, Temple, Western Michigan, Georgia Southern, Toledo, Louisiana Tech, Navy, San Diego State, Utah State, Marshall, Western Kentucky, Memphis, and UConn.
Observations:
1) This week the LA Times admitted that they adjusted their Notre Dame rank to release the Notre Dame preview on Sunday, just for readership.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-top ... olumn.html We all know this happens, but it's interesting to see it admitted so openly. Which leads me to...
2) USA Today's readership is decidedly "Middle America" and I think these rankings very clearly reflect that, with the inflation of smaller schools and G5 teams clearly aimed at circulation and page-views.
3) Jesus-Fucking-Christ. #70! NCST at #44! It isn't just that we're not at the top of the ACC according to these rankings, we're not even remotely competitive!
4) If you're too lazy to click over, other highlights include: Kansas at #124 (lowest P5) just barely behind Vanderbilt at #121. UMass managed #109 (Whipple!!!). In the ACC we rank 11th, ahead of only Syracuse, Wake and UVa (#99), but we did rank higher than old foes Rutgers (#76) and Maryland (#71).
For what it's worth, I don't really get worked up over these kinds of things and I'm clearly not adjusting my 10-3 prediction based on this. It's just going to make it all the more satisfying when BC does shock the world!