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Saturday, August 16, 2008

KU football ranked 14th in AP preseason poll

Five Big 12 teams ranked in top 14

By J-W Staff Reports

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The Kansas Jayhawks are ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press preseason poll released Saturday.

KU is joined by four other Big 12 teams in the top 14: Oklahoma is fourth, Missouri is sixth, Texas is 11th and Texas Tech is 12th.

Georgia is the preseason No. 1, earning the top spot in the AP preseason poll for the first time in school history.

AP Preseason Football Poll

1. Georgia

2. Ohio St.

3. Southern Cal

4. Oklahoma

5. Florida

6. Missouri

7. LSU

8. West Virginia

9. Clemson

10. Auburn

11. Texas

12. Texas Tech

13. Wisconsin

14. Kansas

15. Arizona St.

16. BYU

17. Virginia Tech

18. Tennessee

19. South Florida

20. Illinois

21. Oregon

22. Penn St.

23. Wake Forest

24. Alabama

25. Pittsburgh

Others receiving votes: South Carolina 84, Fresno St. 83, California 59, Utah 53, Cincinnati 44, Florida St. 41, Michigan 36, Boston College 32, Rutgers 32, Michigan St. 21, Boise St. 17, Arkansas 14, North Carolina 14, Connecticut 10, Tulsa 7, UCLA 6, Oregon St. 5, Mississippi St. 4, Virginia 4, Arizona 3, Nebraska 2, Notre Dame 2, Hawaii 1, Washington 1.

Keegan's ballot

Journal-World Sports Editor Tom Keegan had a say in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Here's how he voted:

1. USC

2. Oklahoma

3. Florida

4. Ohio State

5. Georgia

6. Missouri

7. Texas

8. Arizona State

9. West Virginia

10. LSU

11. Kansas

12. Texas Tech

13. Clemson

14. Auburn

15. Tennessee

16. Illinois

17. Wisconsin

18. Boston College

19. Virginia Tech

20. Oregon

21. Michigan

22. Penn State

23. Fresno State

24. BYU

25. South Carolina

Comments

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Doesn't matter how ya start ... but how ya finish!

So, with all of the graduations/early entries will the defending NCAA championship basketball team be ranked higher in the pre-season?

Discuss.

August 16, 2008 at 1:06 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

chuckberry32 (anonymous) says...

F yeah! When the AP comes out it's time to get psyched! No one would have predicted this before last year started and everyone's already a doubter this year. I can't wait to prove these pundits the sheep they are! Rock Chalk!

August 16, 2008 at 1:09 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

chuckberry32 (anonymous) says...

Sevenyear, I push and say we are preseason 14 in the AP poll.

August 16, 2008 at 1:17 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

LAJayhawk (anonymous) says...

chuck,

I was thinking a bit further down in the late teens, maybe early 20s, but I could see the AP tossing them in at 14. Don't see it any higher than that though (14 would be a pretty big stretch -- honestly, don't be totally shocked if we're unranked).

As to the football team, 13th, 14th and 15th in the coaches, AP, and ESPN/USA Today, respectively. Hey, at least they're all pretty consistent!

Can the season start already. Enough speculation.....

August 16, 2008 at 1:39 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

stravinsky (anonymous) says...

Texas = overrated.

Mangino's gonna show them some BCS this year.

August 16, 2008 at 1:56 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

joepattern (anonymous) says...

Behind Wiscy tho? Why?

Whatever. It makes no difference. It will only matter how we play.

It's just funny to see the logic that the pundits use on this stuff... it really might as well be throwing darts at a board to figure it out.

August 16, 2008 at 2:24 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

lance1jhawk (anonymous) says...

sevenyear, Did you see that the KU Marching band will have over 200 members for the first time in a decade. Here is the link.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/aug...

August 16, 2008 at 2:26 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

Indeed I did ... I started a thread about it on the other side of the site:

http://boards.kusports.com/showflat.p...

August 16, 2008 at 2:33 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

Nice representation from the Big 12.

That's amazing that Michigan isn't ranked. I wonder how long it's been since they haven't been ranked in the preseason...

August 16, 2008 at 2:45 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

5DecadeHawk (anonymous) says...

That's why Ryan Greene moved to Vegas.

He couldn't take the taunting because he knew KU would be better than his Wolverines.

I'm guessing that he thinks Michigan might be competitive with UNLV.

August 16, 2008 at 2:53 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jhwkfan162515 (anonymous) says...

And just what has Texas Tech done to merit a higher ranking than Kansas?

August 16, 2008 at 5:13 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

hometownhawk (anonymous) says...

There's absolutely no way we'll be higher than 14 in the preseason bball poll. We just lost too much for national media to give us that type of respect. We'll be between 20-25 probably.

August 16, 2008 at 5:34 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

dagger108 (anonymous) says...

Almost half our schedule is ranked this year! Wow.

It will be nice to not have to listen to that whining when we continue winning this year.

Tech has got to be the most over-hyped team ever.

August 16, 2008 at 7:53 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KGphoto (anonymous) says...

I'm wondering how UCLA gets votes over CU and Nebraska.

Seriously this is a completely ignorant poll outside the top 15. UCLA is going to chew the west coast sand. They have NO talent. And, I'm no CU politician, but considering that they went to a bowl, have a talented quarterback going into only his second year, and one of the top recruiting classes in the year. They should be formidable. The two running backs they recruited, Scott and Polk, should account for two wins by themselves. I could see Colorado competing for the Big IX north this year. Mark it.

August 16, 2008 at 9:03 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

sevenyearhawk (anonymous) says...

As someone else suggested .... they probably use a dartboard!

August 16, 2008 at 10:02 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

hometownhawk (anonymous) says...

the Big 9 has a north and south division?

August 16, 2008 at 11:26 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

springtxhawk (anonymous) says...

Anyone up for some research?

How many times have the Hawks been ranked in preseason and where did the finish relative to where they were ranked preseason?

I'm almost afraid to ask because probably not a pretty answer, but curious.

Just a tidbit from down South, the Houston Chronicle who basically doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the Big 12 North, just finished their preseason tour. All the teams in the South get a day in the spotlight, etc. The North was to be done as a group on the last day. The article was 100% on Missery with nary a single mention of the other 5 teams. Pretty weak but the implication was that KU is a one hit wonder.

Don't think this is the case but gets pretty old.

On a positive note, we did get a video clip in the Direct TV add selling the cfb package. Don't remember many Jayhawk highlights in a pre season cfb spot before.

August 17, 2008 at 7:23 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

leikness (anonymous) says...

Seriously, who the hell is voting for Nebraska?

Although I feel the hawks are flying a bit under the radar, I like this ranking for KU, it shows some respect but also realizes the difficulty in the schedule and allows for the personnel losses. The more I look at the schedule the more I like it. South Florida is the key, get by that one and enjoy 2 cream puffs, then CU at home before heading to OU?? This team would be flying high. Homecoming for TTU, then again a lull in the schedule w/KSU and NU to get ready for Texas, then week off before Mizzery? I think it lays our about as well as you can ask given the competition level. Win against South Florida and half of the "difficult" games (TTU, OU, UT, MU) and take care of business elsewhere and you got a 2nd 10 win season. That's my hope for this squad this year.

August 17, 2008 at 9:20 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

leikness (anonymous) says...

spring...i think i saw the answer to your posted recently and it was not pretty.

August 17, 2008 at 9:21 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

troutsee (anonymous) says...

It is nice to get the recognition but pre-season rankings mean nothing. Every team in the B-12 should be better. Thus, it all boils down to game preparation. I think our coach does a pretty doggoned good job at getting his team prepared. Look out! Hear come the Hawks.

Come on 30th, get here!

August 17, 2008 at 10 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KGphoto (anonymous) says...

South Florida is definitely big. But an early season loss trumps a late season loss in the polls every time. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of an Oklahoma team coming off the Red River Rivalry game. All of OU's emotions go into that game every year, and we got next.

You beat Oklahoma, and you've nailed down the "Big Time" status. You beat Oklahoma, and you've leveled the North, South playing field.

August 17, 2008 at 10 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

rockchalk_dpu (anonymous) says...

troutsee,

The pre-season rankings do mean a lot actually. I forgot which coach said it, but he was right when he explained that the higher you are ranked in pre-season, the higher you can finish. A lot of the BCS "formula" comes from these early weeks and us being ranked can help us to stay ranked and even weather a loss or two and not drop too far in the polls/rankings.

RCJ

August 17, 2008 at 11 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

troutsee (anonymous) says...

I was mainly trying to make the point that Mangino coached teams are prepared to play the next game. Therefore, I give us a better than 50-50 odds of beating everybody on our schedule. The only game in which we looked unprepared was against OSU in Lawrence two years ago. But, remember that KU team had to cope with instability at the QB position.

August 17, 2008 at 11:49 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jerhawk (anonymous) says...

mangino brings football on a whole new level. go hawks

August 17, 2008 at 12:16 p.m. ( | suggest removal )