Final Top 25 Update

Even though I think bowl games are meaningless, I couldn't resist one last update.  Here's how the bowl season played out (teams that lost crossed out):

 

Previous			Projected			My Rankings
1.	Alabama		1.	Alabama		1.	Alabama
2.	Texas		2.	Florida		2.	Florida
3.	TCU		3.	Boise State		3.	Texas
4.	Cincinnati		4.	Texas		4.	Boise State
5.	Florida		5.	Ohio State		5.	TCU
6.	Boise State		6.	TCU		6.	Ohio State
7.	Oregon		7.	Cincinnati		7.	Iowa
8.	Ohio State		8.	Iowa		8.	Cincinnati
9.	Georgia Tech		9.	Penn State		9.	Penn State
10.	Iowa		10.	VA Tech		10.	VA Tech
11.	Penn State		11.	Oregon		11.	Oregon
12.	Virginia Tech		12.	GA Tech		12.	GA Tech
13.	LSU		13.	BYU		13.	Pitt
14.	Miami (Fla.)		14.	Pitt		14.	Nebraska
15.	Brigham Young		15.	Nebraska		15.	Wisconsin
16.	Oregon State		16.	LSU		16.	LSU
17.	Pittsburgh		17.	Miami (Fla.)		17.	Miami (Fla.)
18.	West Virginia		18.	Utah		18.	Tex Tech
19.	Stanford		19.	Wisconsin		19.	BYU
20.	Nebraska		20.	C. Michigan		20.	Oregon St.
21.	Okla St.		21.	Tex Tech		21.	USC
22.	Arizona		22.	Oregon St.		22.	Ole Miss
23.	Utah		23.	USC		23.	Rutgers
24.	Wisconsin		24.	Clemson		24.	Stanford
25.	C. Michigan		25.	Ole Miss		25.	W. Virginia
26.	E. Carolina		26.	W. Virginia		26.	C. Michigan
27.	Houston		27.	Stanford
28.	Texas Tech		28.	OK State
29.	USC		29.	Rutgers
30.	Northwestern		30.	Georgia
31.	Clemson		31.	Navy
32.	Cal		32.	Oklahoma
33.	Ole Miss
34.	UNC
35.	Oklahoma
36.	Tennessee
37.	Missouri

 
Other Random Thoughts

-I don't attach much, if any, meaning to the outcomes of the bowl games.  The teams often have layoffs of a month or more, coaching staffs turnover, seniors start thinking about the NFL, teams play in weird places and try out new schemes, and so on . . . In the end, all but one of them is an exhibition game and the National Championship Game has had more than its share of fluky results as well.

-I'm not sure if I've ever seen two less impressive teams in the title game.  Despite Texas trying very hard to lose the game, it took Alabama 58 minutes to seal the deal.  In the end, 'bama only passed for 58 yards and averaged 4.0 yards per rush.  Despite Texas' offensive ineptitude, they actually outgained 'bama.  It's impossible to say whether the game wouldn't turned out differently had McCoy not gotten hurt, but I'm pretty darn sure that McCoy wouldn't have finished 15/40 with 4 INT's.

-Here are the final conference records for the bowl games.  Again, not that this means much:

Conf.	W	L	%
Big East	4	2	0.667
SEC	6	4	0.600
Big Ten	4	3	0.571
Pac 10	3	4	0.429
ACC	3	4	0.429
Big XII	3	5	0.375