1/8/13 Final Top 13

It's been a great season of college football.  Unfortunately my Irish didn't show up with their best last night, but the best team in America won the national title and that's that.  It was probably my favorite sport to blog about all season, and I'm looking forward to next year already.  Here's a look at my final Top 13 for this season, as well as my preseason ballot for comparison.

1. Alabama (13-1)
2. Oregon (12-1)
3. Notre Dame (12-1)
4. Georgia (12-2)
5. Ohio St. (12-0)
6.  Texas A&M (11-2)
7. Stanford (12-2)
8. Florida (11-2)
9. South Carolina (11-2)
10. Florida St. (11-2)
11. Clemson (11-2)
12. Louisville (11-2)
13. LSU (10-3)


Preseason Top 13 (with my comments)

1. Alabama- Defense will reload, Saban's machine will keep churning, and A.J. McCarron will prove he can lead the team.
Alright, I got the #1 team right!
2. USC- Matt Barkley and that offense will be unstoppable.
Yikes...
3. LSU- Zach Mettenberger will help inmprove this offense, but will the defense be as dominant without Claiborne and Matthieu in the secondary?
Not ashamed to have had LSU this high.  Not my fault nobody told me Mettenberger wasn't very good.
4. Oklahoma- OU is stacked as usual, can Landry Jones finally put it all together?
Landry Jones didn't put it all together.
5. West Virginia- They will score score and score some more.  A great fit for the shootout conference Big 12.
This looked good for like 4 games.
6. Arkansas- Tyler Wilson is a flat out stud, but will have a lot of new faces to throw to.
Tyler Wilson got hurt and Arkansas' coach was a bigger nutjob than Bobby Petrino.
7. Georgia- Andy Murray and company are my top team from the SEC East, but are they god enough on D to beat the powers in the West?
They weren't good enough against the run to beat Alabama, good call.
8.. Florida State- Jimbo Fisher is building the program back up, and this is the year they reclaim the ACC.
Another solid prediction.
9. South Carolina- Jadeveon Clowney and this defense are scary, as is Marcus Lattimore in the backfield.  But they don't have a QB in the same league as the SEC foes above them.
They started and finished #9.
10. Oregon- The offense will still flow, but the defense will still lag behind.
I underrated the Ducks because I didn't know Marcus Marriota and that defense would be so good.
11. Wisconsin- They will run the ball better than anyone and thus are my favorites in a balanced but not outstanding Big 10.
They DID win the Big 10...
12. Michigan- Denard Robinson's senior year has Big Blue fans dreaming of Roses.
Big Blue fans didn't get those Roses.
13. Virginia Tech- If Logan Thomas can harness his raw talent, this team will play Beamer-ball and contend in a surprisingly good ACC.
Logan Thomas had a REALLY bad season.