Every year the Associated Press comes out with their preseason rankings for college football, and the hype begins over the AP No. 1 team.
The No. 1 team is filled with stars who assemble a seemingly unbeatable team, who usually have the preseason Heisman favorite and plenty of bandwagon fans.
In the last eight years, each preseason top dog has one thing in common: They lose. All of the preseason favorites have been taken down and have not finished the season as the final No. 1 team.
The last team to accomplish this feat was University Southern California in 2004, when the Trojans beat Oklahoma 55-19 in the national championship game.
The latest AP No. 1 team to fall is this year’s USC Trojans as they lost to the No. 21 ranked Stanford Cardinal. The Trojans were ranked No. 2 at the time but were the preseason No. 1 team.
USC’s quarterback Matt Barkley is taking the heat on the latest loss.
The quarterback came into the 2012 season with all the hype in the world. He came back for his senior season to win a championship and not only lost that chance with the loss but most likely lost his Heisman trophy.
Barkley is now 0-4 against Stanford, and this time there was no Andrew Luck standing in his way.
So, there’s only one thing Barkley can blame this loss for — the curse of college football’s preseason AP No. 1 team of course. Can this be a legitimate curse? Why not?
Several sports already have famous curses with the curse of the Bambino, the curse of the Billy Goat, the Madden curse and the Sports Illustrated cover curse. Now I officially have made the latest curse — the curse of college football’s preseason AP No. 1 team.
This seems like a legitimate curse to me. Eight straight years seems long enough to be a curse.
Not only has a preseason No. 1 team not won a national championship in eight years, they also haven’t won a Heisman trophy since Ohio State’s Troy Smith in 2006.
This curse shows sometimes it’s not best to start on top. The team with the most preseason hype also has the most pressure on them.
With this curse, a team between No. 2 to No. 15 should feel just fine. The No. 1 team should not.
As the college football gods strike down teams at the top of the hill, the lower teams just creep up the rankings.
USC’s loss has completely shaken up the rankings. Just like last year, Alabama and LSU sit atop the rankings, with Alabama looking like the NFL’s 33rd team.
The SEC now has four teams in the top 10, and the showdown between Alabama and LSU becomes the biggest game of the year once again.
Oregon is now in the driver’s seat at the No. 3 spot. If Oregon can stay undefeated in the competitive Pac-12, they will find themselves most likely playing the winner of Alabama and LSU in the BCS national championship game.
Again, all you can expect in college football is the unexpected. Give Stanford all the credit it deserves for taking down USC, but the curse of college football’s preseason AP No. 1 team deserves the most credit.
Categories: Sports, The Inkwell
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