California Golden Bears (6-5)
Preseason Ranking: #12
Season Start: Impressive Home Win against Tennessee 45-31, Beat #11 Oregon by 3 inches 31-24
Highest Ranking: #2
Downfalls: Loss at home to Oregon State (38-21), Loss on the road to UCLA (30-21), Loss at home to USC (24-17)
Triumphs: Beating #6 Oregon by 3 inches 31-24, beating #15 Tennessee 45-31
Biggest Player: DeSean Jackson
Best Excuse: "Our quarterback isn't healthy!"

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-9)
Preseason Ranking: unranked
Season Start: Loss at home to Georgia Tech 33-3, at Michigan/at home USC 38-0, going 3.5 games without an offensive TD,
Highest Ranking: unranked
Downfalls: Losses to service academies, worst start in Irish history
Triumphs: Beating UCLA 20-6, beating Duke 28-7
Biggest Player: The Leprechaun
Best Excuse: "Ty's fault."

Southern California Trojans (8-2)
Preseason Ranking: #1
Season Start: Winning 38-10 against Idaho, beating thrashing Nebraska in Lincoln 49-31 in Lincoln, Narrowly Escaping Washington 27-24
Highest Ranking: #1
Downfalls: Loss at home against Stanford 24-23, Loss at Oregon 24-17
Triumphs: Beating Nebraska 49-31 in Lincoln, heroic game winning drive against Cal 24-17
Biggest Player: John David Booty (qb)
Best Excuse: "Injuries, injuries."

Michigan Wolverines (8-4)
Preseason Ranking: #5
Season Start: Loss at home to Appalachian State 34-32, Spanking at home against Oregon 39-7
Highest Ranking: #5
Downfalls: Mountaineers, Ducks, loss at Wisconsin 37-21, loss at home to Ohio State 14-3
Triumphs: Beating #10 Penn State 14-9 with freshman QB, beating Illinois 27-17 without Mike Hart, heroic comeback against in-state rival Michigan State 28-24
Biggest Player: Mike Hart (legs or mouth: up for debate!)
Excuse: "The coaches did it!"

Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-6)
Preseason Ranking: #20
Season Start: Wins against Nevada, at Wake Forrest 20-17, loss at home to USC 49-31
Highest Ranking: #14
Downfalls: Loss at home to USC, rivalry against Missouri 41-6, Kansas 76-39, huge lead slips away against Texas, 1 point victory against Ball State
Triumphs: Putting up 71 against Kansas State
Biggest Player: Sam Keller (qb) I guess
Excuse: "Callihan is treading on our tradition and style."

Texas Longhorns (9-2)
Preseason Ranking: #4
Season Start: 3-0 with sloppy wins against Arkansas State, UCF and TCU
Highest Ranking: #4
Downfalls: Trouncing at home against Kansas State 41-21, losing the Red River Shootout with Oklahoma 28-21, narrow escapes against UCF, Nebraska and Oklahoma State
Triumphs: Heroic comebacks against UCF, Nebraska, and Oklahoma State, beat down of TCU 38-14
Best Player: Jamaal Charles (rb)
Excuse: "Mack Brown's time has passed."

Louisville Cardinals (5-5)
Preseason Ranking: #10
Season Start: Beat down of Murray State (73-10), shoot out win against Middle Tennessee State (58-42), loss against Kentucky 40-34
Highest Ranking: #9
Downfalls: Losses against Syracuse 38-35, Utah 44-35, UConn 21-17, and West Virginia 38-31
Triumphs: Handing Cincinatti their first loss 28-24,
Biggest Player: Brian Brohm (qb)
Excuse: "Defense hangs the offense out to dry."

Wisconsin Badgers (9-3)
Preseason ranking: #7
Season Start: 5 wins; 3 of them by 7 points or less, struggle against Citadel
Highest Ranking: #5
Downfalls: Losses on the road against Ohio State (38-17) Illinois (31-26) and Penn State (38-7)
Triumphs: Victory at home against Hart-and-Henne-less Michigan 37-21
Biggest Player: PJ Hill (rb)
Excuse: "We're Wisconsin, what do you expect?"

Rutgers Scarlet Knights (7-4)
Preseason Ranking: #16
Season Start: Convincing wins against Buffalo, Navy, and Norfolk State
Best Ranking: #10
Downfalls: Losing to Maryland 34-24, Cincinatti 28-23, West Virginia 31-3, UConn 38-19
Triumphs: Taking down #2 South Florida on Thursday Night
Biggest Player: Ray Rice (rb)
Excuse: "We play in the BIG EAST."

Arkansas Razorbacks (7-4)
Preseason Ranking: #21
Season Start: Losing 2 out of the first 3 against Alabama (41-38) and Kentucky (42-29)
Best Ranking: #16
Downfalls: Losses against Alabama (41-38) Kentucky (42-29) Auburn (9-7) and Tennessee (34-13)
Triumphs: Beating South Carolina 48-36
Biggest Player: Darrien McFadden (rb) or Felix Jones (rb/kr)
Biggest Excuse: I'm too damn tired to even think of an excuse


Forgive me if I made fun of your team.

You know, I would say USC, but Louisville was so bad after people were talking Louisville - WVU race for the Big East title.

I don't think Texas was really much of a disappointment. They might still play in a BCS Bowl.

Louisville and Michigan have got to be the biggest, followed by Cal. These three schools were national title contenders. (the first two in the preseason top 10). The Cardinals might not even make a BOWL, and Henne, Hart and Long sure look stupid now....

Texas is not a disappointment...now, if we lost to A&M, then it would be a disappointment.

I would say Michigan. They were loaded, all these seniors coming back just to win the NC or at least make a BCS bowl especially since OSU was supposed to be down this year. What happens? The biggest upset I've seen in a while and an embarrassment to Oregon and then bookended with two losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Louisville is a close second, but they only have 1 more loss and while they did lose to Syracuse...they could probably beat Appalachian State at Pappa John's Stadium.

Louisville would have to be the biggest disappointment. I thought they would be serious contenders, instead, they've faded into obscurity.

Notre Dame's another definite disappointment, especially Jimmy Clausen. He was supposed to be the greatest quarterback ever and couldn't get anything done.

I don't think Texas and Wisconsin are disappointments at all. They should be glad to have won as many games as they have. I didn't think Texas would be very good at all, they've surprised me.

Louisville without a doubt.

Cal definitely the were #1 for a quarter or two in the OSU game (after LSU lost) and now they aren't even close to ranked

Notre Dame...seriously, they lost to NAVY!!! You know it's gotta be really bad if that's happened. There is seriously something wrong in South Bend. But it's almost certain that the AD and Weis will be gone after next year.

Nebraska comes in second. It's time to correct the mistake they made and bring in Pelini.

Another team thats not on this list is TCU. This was supposed to be this year's Boise St, and they've been a total non-factor even in the Mountain West. Decent Defense...cannot score points.

Boise St and BYU are the premier mid major programs now.

Michigan
Notre Dame
Cal
USC

these are all teams that didnt live up to expectations and 3 of them suffered horrible upsets that marred the season completely beyond the initial points of failure.

as for the excuse of notre dame...blaming Ty is one of the worst considering that several teams that have worse recruiting than ND have beat the same teams ND lost to.

wake forest
delaware
ball state
rutgers
navy
byu
new mexico
stanford
utah
washington state
arizona
michigan state
indiana
Boston College

and many more have all beat Notre Dame or beat teams Notre Dame lost to with worst recruiting in the past 4 years (maybe not 2005-2006 though)