Before the season started I made a fanpost  about preseason top ten teams. Now it's time to see how they played out.

1.Ohio State- tOSU finished the season 10-3 with a blowout loss to USC, and two close losses to Penn State and Texas. If they had finished 10-3 without playing Texas, I would have said they were overrated yet again and shouldn't have even been in the top ten. But after watching them give Texas a run for their money in the Fiesta bowl, I feel as though they deserve top ten consideration. Props on finishing strong guys.

2.Georgia- The bulldogs couldn't live up to the hype with 3 losses in 2008, to Georgia Tech, Florida, and Alabama. It seems as though they played like the 2007 longhorns, struggling to find an identity, not showing up to all of their games, keeping inferior teams in it until the end. All in all an overrated team.

3.USC- If not for a slip up in Corvallis, USC would have ended up in the national title game playing UF. The Trojans finished the season off strong with a 38-24 win in the rose bowl. USC finished the season with a 12-1 record and ranked #2 in the nation.

4.Oklahoma- Safe to say this was a disappointing season for the sooners, they lost to Texas 45-35 and lost a fifth straight BCS bowl game to Florida (and to make matters worse, Texas won a BCS game). OU finished the season ranked #5 in the nation, 12-2 and political Big 12 champions.

5.Florida- Urban and the Gators were an extra point away from finishing undefeated and national title winners, as it were, they finished 13-1 national champs. There really wasn't anything special about this team, they played solid defense and good offense.

6.V. Tech- Despite starting out the season 0-1 with a loss to ECU, Va Tech rebounded to win the ACC and win the orange bowl against Big East champion Cincinnati 20-7. They finished the season 10-4 and ranked #14 in the nation.  

7.Missouri- Safe to say this was a disappointing year for the Tigers. They had hope of winning a National title and instead ended up in the Alamo Bowl. They lost to Okie state at home in a defensive struggle, and then got blown out by the longhorns in the following week. They later got handled by Kansas, and dominated by OU in the Big 12 title game, only to go on and win in horrible fashion in the Alamo bowl.

8.West Virginia- A disappointing year for a disappointing team. A lack of a passing game seemed to be the destruction of this team.  West V. finished the season 9-4 and ranked #23 in the AP poll.

9.Texas- Texas started out strong going 7-0 in blowout fashion. However, they seemed flat against okie state, winning a close win 28-24 after failing to put osu away in the fourth. The next week as we all know was a disastrous one, as a poor first half lost this one, although Texas took the lead late only to give it up with 1 second left. Voters took Texas out of the big 12 title and put OU in, only to go on to have UT win its BCS game and OU lose theirs. Texas finished 12-1 and ranked #3 in the nation.

10.Texas Tech- Tech had a good year going 11-2 with a cotton bowl loss (which is great for tech). However they seemed to self implode when the spotlight got on them, going 1-2 in their last 3 games, getting blown out in both of their losses. The Tech defense looked as if it had take it up a notch against Texas and osu, but got exposed in their last three games giving up a combined total of 140 points in their last three games.

Now that we have looked at my pre-season top ten teams, lets look at the post season top ten (keep in mind this is not a formal poll, just my own).

Also, for teams I have written about in previous section, new section may be shorter.

1. Texas- Record:12-1 My opinion may be biased since I am a longhorn, but this team has a legitimate case for #1, after going 12-1 and one second away from getting a chance to go to a mnc game.

2. Florida-  Record: 13-1 Like Texas, Florida has a case for being #1. The reason I don't give it to them is because the lost to a 4 loss team at home. With that said, they are very well coached and I would give them a talent edge over Texas.

3. USC- Record: 12-1 Great season, close games with Arizona and CAL, but domination of the rest. Some might ask "well why Texas ahead of USC when USC destroyed tOSU but Texas beat them by 3?" the answer: because we played a much better Ohio State than USC did, we had a tougher schedule, and we didn't lose to oregon state at home.

4. Utah- Record: 13-0 Why not the undefeated #1? Get in a real conference and then earn #1. I'm not saying the Utes are not good, but until they play with the big boys week in and week out and not once every four years, they don't get #1. But lets not take away from a great season and a terrific bowl win.

5. Oklahoma- Record: 12-2 fell apart in fourth quarter of tough games. Enough talent to beat anybody in the country.

6. Alabama- Record: 12-2 Great regular season and I think that I speak for most of the college football fan base when I say I didn't see Bama being a top ten team for a couple of years to come. Great season, although Saban's last two teams have had trouble closing.

7. Penn State- Record: 11-2 Big ten Champions. Great season that I didn't see coming. If not for a sloppy played game against Iowa, we would have seen Penn State in the national title. At one point in the Rose bowl I thought "wow what a disappointing team", but they really changed my mind when they never quit and really played tell the last whistle was blown. This looks like a team with alot of character and great coaches.

8. Ohio State- Record: 10-3 Again great season, really changed my mind about them and the big 10 in the fiesta bowl when they took it to us in the fourth quarter. blew up Mich state, played Penn State tough.

9. TCU- Record: 11-2 Beat undefeated Boise State in their bowl game. Lost to OU in blowout fashion at the beginning of the season, and lost a close one at the end of the season to undefeated Utah. They solidly beat everyone on their schedule (including 10-2 BYU) except for the two losses and Colorado State. Led the nation in defense.

10. Texas Tech- Record: 11-2 At one point they were playing like the #1 team in the nation, then fell apart. Lost to Ole Miss in the cotton bowl after jumping out to a 14-0 start.

Feel free to make a list of your own top ten teams and critique mine.

mark