Ok, year after year West Virginia's football program is rated too high in preseason polls. Why?

Question

Why does West Virginia's football program always end up ranked so highly in the preseason polls? They have some good quality players but they always come up short. I don't have anything against WV but why would someone like rivals rank them at no. 2 to begin the season? I bet they wouldn't be ranked so highly if they were in the Big Ten, ACC, or SECC...

Answer 1

They needed room at the top for LSU to move up. I wish LSU's biggest threat was Louisville or Rutgers.

Answer 2

That question should be reserved for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish too, every year the Medias hyped them up like no others only to get beat up by other team during the season. They win against the lesser team to build their record up and get whupped by the power teams like USC, LSU, and etc. As for West V. the reason they rank this high because of the returning players they have coming back on offense and their defense can't stop anyone even with the down Big East competition. I mean common top Big East dog is Louisville, and up coming Rutgers, but they're not a power program just yet. But West V. is gonna rank way up theirs all season just watch and if they don't lose to anybody in the Big East they'll go to the National Championship game.

Answer 3

For many years the Mountaineers played well but not spectacularly in the old Big East.

However now that Rich Rodriguez has taken over the program, expectations have gotten higher and higher. Now the school is no longer content with making a bowl game, winning is expected.

Any school with two legitimate Heisman contenders would do extremely well in those other conferences. Also with 18 returning starters on a team that took care of one of those other conference's better teams in the bowl game (Georgia Tech) the preseason polls seem to be more accurate.

Please keep in mind that three of the top 12 teams at the end of last year were from the Big East.

Answer 4

Ok, year after year Notre Dame's football program is rated too high in preseason polls. Why?

Why does Notre Dame's football program always end up ranked so highly in the preseason polls? They have some good quality players but they always come up short. I don't have anything against NND but why would someone like rivals rank them at no. 2 to begin the season? I bet they wouldn't be ranked so highly if they were in the Big Ten, ACC, or SECC...




There. I corrected it for you.

Answer 5

Score 1 is way off, no way Florida and LSU both recover from their huge losses to be in the top 5, unless it's just a formality based on last year. Oklahoma is too high because not only do they have to replace their qb, but their replacement got knocked out. I'll take VT over louisville (lost to South Florida last year) as well as Cal (manhandled by Tenn)
Penn State should be ahead of osu in the big ten IMHO and I'd put them in front of wisconsin (big time overrated). They have all kinds of experience and weapons on their team with an experienced qb. I know he was inconsistent last year, but this year he should be better. Arkansas is weak, they lost their qb, mcfadden's going to get stuffed into a box of ten defenders week after week (1 big run against wisconsin?).

But the one thing he got right is that W. Virginia is horribly overrated. The whole big east is a joke. Here's my list of teams I'd rather bet on than W. Virginia:
1. USC
2. Michigan
3. Virginia Tech
4. Penn State
5. Georgia
6. Tennessee
7. Florida State
8. osu
9. Texas

And I bet Florida, LSU, Oklahoma, Wisconsin would all take them down after a couple of games to get their situations settled. So maybe W. Virginia in the top ten, but more like in the top 15.

Answer 6

They are ranked high b/c they have two "heisman hopefuls" and they play in the big east so that they will have an easier road to the National Championship. People are giving the big east so much credit but against the big time programs they just don't match up. They are definately overhyped!

As for ND everyone on here is referring to them when they think of WV as overhyped but ND is in a class by themselves when it come to overrated. They get all the breaks: Constant media attention (even when they stink), there own national tv contract, independance from a pwoer conference, and the bias from the selection commitee when it come to picking teams for bowl games!

Answer 7

the AP should place them around 5. i have USC, LSU, Texas, Florida, WV, Michigan, OU, Wisconsin, Louisville, Cal in my predicted top 10. Ah i'll just finish the top 25. OSU, Auburn, VT, Tennessee, Arkansas, BC, Nebraska, Georgia, Rutgers, TXA&M, FSU, Penn St, Miami, UCLA, Hawaii round out the top 25.

I dunno who put the rivals poll together but penn st at 15 (barely top 25, if that)? WV at 2 (way overrated)? Arkansas at 24 (Mcfadden is back, hello)? What r these people smoking?

ADD: smilam, i'm predicting what the AP poll will look like PRESEASON. This is not my breakdown of it. I could try to give u my end of season poll but i'd be way off because i haven't seen any team play yet this season.

Answer 8

theonlybeldin is right on about Notre Dame. I don't think West Virginia has been overrated really. They've won 11 games in each of the last 2 seasons, granted their schedule probably could've been a little tougher, but they are in the Big East.

Answer 9

look at what they've done the past two years. doesn't look like a disappointment to me. However, there's something that really bugs me here, and that's the fact that people rank them high because they think that they have an easy road to an unbeaten record because they're in the big east. that bugs me because it's a self- fulfilling prophecy of sorts, because now they're ranked high it'll keep them high.

Answer 10

what else is there to rate in west va.?