By MICHAEL PETERS Sports Editor on Jan 27, 2013, at 11:08 PM Updated on 1/28 at 10:37 AM
THE EDITOR'S DESK
Former University of Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford has partnered with the city of St. Louis to collect supplies for victims ...
Sports figures and teams from near and far are pitching in to help those impacted by the tornadoes in Oklahoma on Sunday ...
Sports teams throughout the Tulsa area are finding ways big and small to help the Moore tornado relief effort.
John ...
I read a fair number of complaints from college football fans who don't like preseason rankings.
I see them for what they are -- a good way to keep up the football discussion long before there are actual games on which to focus.
But in terms of accuracy, preseason college football predictions are a little like recruiting rankings -- they're hardly foolproof, but you would rather be ranked high than not at all.
For every come-from-nowhere success story like Notre Dame this season, you have an Alabama.
Take the World's preseason rankings as an example. In our August preseason section, 10 writers made predictions in eight different categories -- Big 12 champ, Conference USA East and West division and overall champ, the two BCS title game participants and BCS champion and the Heisman Trophy winner.
Of course, no one on our esteemed panel could predict the season by Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel. But otherwise our predictions weren't bad. Seven of the 10 members of the panel got at least three of the eight categories right.
And two of us went five of eight. (I shyly raise my hand when roll is called).
My winners were Oklahoma (hey, if Bob Stoops isn't too proud to claim it, than neither am I), Tulsa twice and Alabama twice. And my pick for Alabama's BCS opponent was Oregon, which finished the year ranked second. That's not too shabby.
My only true embarrassment was taking Southern Miss to win the East half of C-USA. Yes, that's the same USM that went winless and fired its first-year head coach. But in my defense, if I had known Central Florida wasn't going to face its NCAA postseason sanctions this year, I probably would have picked the Knights.
Now there was one member of our preseason panel who was an imperfect 0-for-8. I'll keep that identity secret to protect the guilty.
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
