I mean, I understand the basics of his point about putting Georgia 9th, but it just feels wrong. 9th? Really? Georgia is the 9th best team in the country? I mean, we’re obviously all grasping at straws when trying to rank teams that haven’t yet played a game, but Georgia as the 9th best team in the country? That’s a pretty strong statement. I can see Georgia ending the season at #9 (a loss to FL and LSU, with no SEC Championship game appearance), but I can’t think of 4 teams that are for sure better than Georgia to start the season.

Florida is at best questionable, since we’re guessing that their defense will be better. Ohio St., you have a realistic point with arguing for being better on the returning talent alone. USC, they’re replacing their QB, and have gotten dramatically less out of their wide receivers in recent years than they did in the heyday. Oklahoma, they’ve got a great OL and DL, but they lost some good players and didn’t really play well away from Norman last year at times. All those things make for reasonable arguments for placing certain teams ahead of Georgia, but really, are we going to go as far as to say that Georgia couldn’t beat West Virginia (try and see if they aren’t prepared going in to that game)? Or Missouri? I think Georgia matches up considerably well with both of those teams, as they do with teams like Auburn (who they’ve beaten two years in a row now and who is replacing their starting QB, and both their offensive and defensive coordinators) and LSU (breaking in either a redshirt freshman or a junior transfer from Harvard at QB). How many teams can we realistically say start the season with a better team than Georgia? 4-5 at most.

What worries me most as a Georgia fan is that Steele’s usually right, however. I mean, he’s where he is because he does so much work (a distinction I might say SMQ also receives) and is usually so right. I hate to think that with a team like they’ve got, Georgia is that easy to throw into the bottom of the top 10. People complain about SEC teams and not playing tough non-conference schedules, but if Georgia’s getting counted out because of their schedule, then maybe Vince Dooley’s method of staying in the South was right! I mean, Ohio St. managed to make it to a national title game with a marque game of Miami of Ohio last season(this is obviously not a dig at Ohio St., who has scheduled much harder teams over the course of the last couple years and just seemingly got lucky last season, however, it’s a point that I felt needed to be made). Maybe scheduling the Oregon’s and Arizona St.’s of the world isn’t really the best bet for teams like Georgia, who seemingly could have ridden the much easier schedule of Florida to considerable pre-season feelings of inevitability.

I hate to think that, however. Because really, we’re all going to watch that ASU/UGA game, just like we’ll all watch USC/Ohio St.

Phil Steele makes his rankings based off of his 6 computer models. And yes, he’s the most accurate according to Stassen, but here’s some highlights from his 2007 preseason rankings (which won the most accurate award):

5. Michigan
7. Louisville
8. FSU
10. Penn St.
13. South Carolina
15. Ohio St.
17. Alabama
20. Texas A&M
27. Miami (FL)
41. Auburn
43. Illinois

There’s more strangeness than that, but keep in mind that while Phil is the most accurate, it’s not like he’s spot-on or anything.