ESPN's nBE 2013 Pre-season Rankings

[SMU2007]

SDSU's schedule was ranked 108. Ours was 74. Oh, and we beat them badly head to head.

Beat them head to head? I'm confused.

[Prideful Pony]

I'm assuming he means on shared opponents (Fresno, etc.).

[WordUpBU]

SMU will do better than expected in league play but the SWC games will be tough to overcome. I think SMU can beat UConn, Memphis, UH, and Temple but it's going to be tougher than the 2012 slate.

[AusTxPony]

Do we know the conference schedule yet? Surely not since Boise left. Cincinnati and SDSU should take a step back, Louisville will be very good and then there's UCF and Rutgers.

[ponyboy]

I'm assuming he means on shared opponents (Fresno, etc.).

No, I'm dumb.

But the other points stand. We were ranked higher in the final Sagarin and had a better strength of schedule.

[ojaipony]

#10 is ridiculous.

With this team, I honestly have no idea. We blow out Fresno but can't beat Tulane or Rice. We have the POTENTIAL to win the whole damn thing IMHO. We will be fine at RB and I think we might actually have a pretty good offense this year. Defensively, the DEs are my biggest concern. Of course, I have high hopes for "he who shall not be named" but I have no idea who will step up on the other side (Seals? Cameron Smith?). I think Darrian Wright will be ok at NT (and what about Nick Reed?).

[sbsmith]

SDSU's schedule was ranked 108. Ours was 74. Oh, and we beat them badly head to head.

We didn't play them head to head (would have lost to them anywhere but Hawaii though). Their schedule may have been stronger than ours but we'd have still missed a bowl with it (5-7) while they'd have played for the C-USA title with ours (9-3). They're probably headed back to Mountain West so how we stack up against them is ultimately irrelevant.

[SMU_Alumni11]

SMU will do better than expected in league play but the SWC games will be tough to overcome. I think SMU can beat UConn, Memphis, UH, and Temple but it's going to be tougher than the 2012 slate.

I think tech at home and away at tcu are winnable games. Baylor and AM games have to pray for one to be drop and the other to hopefully be competitive at home.

[Stallion]

TCU will probably be the stronger team than Baylor next year although the loss of Josh Boyce to NFL Draft will hurt. TCU is loaded. They return everybody-maybe 2 starting QBs and I'm sure few of you are aware of the 5 quality BCS transfers that sat out last year and will be eligible next year. Baylor now has a real questionmark at QB and I mean much bigger than last year. The smart money was on Florence picking up the offense quickly based on performance in spot duty the year before. Not sure next year. TCU should definitely be a preseason Top 25 and I thought TCU would struggle late in the year even when they were Top 15. Next year I see them pretty damn competitive in the upper echelon of Big 12 teams

[LA_Mustang]

I'm confused how us predicted to finish 10th is ridiculous? We had two nice wins (Tulsa and Fresno) and two bad losses (Tulane and Rice). Every BCS school we played blew us out of the water. We are losing almost everyone of our defensive playmakers, which was the strength of our team, and one of the best RBs in school history. Our incoming recruiting class is probably ranked in the bottom 5 of all BCS schools (yes we are BCS for at least one year). Outside of the TE from Red Oak, I don't think we had a recruit with a BCS school offer. Can someone please explain to me why they think we are going to be good team next year, or in the top half of the Big East. I'm as big a fan as anyone, but I just don't see it.

[ponyinNC]

any chance Tulane/ECU/Tulsa come in early? That could soften the schedule a bit.

[ponyboy]

I'm confused how us predicted to finish 10th is ridiculous? We had two nice wins (Tulsa and Fresno) and two bad losses (Tulane and Rice).

Tulane I get, but how was Rice a bad loss? They had a winning record including a spanking of Air Force in their bowl game.

[Treadway21]

The Rice loss isn't as bad as it was. But they kicked us around more than they should of. Still, I will give you, they were playing well when we got em.

[couch 'em]

The Rice loss isn't as bad as it was. But they kicked us around more than they should of. Still, I will give you, they were playing well when we got em.

The Rice loss being not too bad is actually worse. What is their athlete major? How are their recruiting requirements? Does their locker room look like Club Jaguire?

[SMUer]

Are we really arguing that the loss to Rice wasn't THAT bad because they were one game over 0.500 at the time...excuse me while I throw up my entire breakfast