A Look Back - Conference Predictions

So far, we've reviewed how my summer preseason picks stacked up to the actual season results. Today (well, actually a couple days ago, as this post is scheduled for Xmas and I won't be blogging that day), we'll look at how accurate my prognostications were in the conference blasts. The easiest way I could think of was to make a table matching my picks against the actual end-of-the-year conference standings. I'll comment below:

Now for the commentary.

• The Big East: Pretty much the only thing I got right was West Virginia being in the mix. I had the 'Neers getting edged by the Bulls in the end, though. Louisville and Cincy were both surprises, as I had them near the bottom of my preseason standings.
• The Big 12: What a LOL-fest. First, I had Texas winning, but in August I finalized my pick with Oklahoma winning the league. Still wrong. I put too much faith in Texas A&M (even giving them a good shot at an at-large bid) and not enough in OK State who really stepped up this season. Once again, there were two surprises: Kansas State and Baylor, who I had at 5th and 8th, respectively.
• ACC Atlantic: Close enough...except for Wake.
• ACC Coastal: More than close enough. I mean, who saw this Virginia team coming?
• B1G Legends: Sparty did a much better job building on 2010 than I predicted. I thought Nebraska would have a much better season, maybe even getting an at large BCS bid. Instead, Michigan - who I picked for five losses - snuck into the Sugar Bowl.
• B1G Leaders: NAILED IT.
• PAC-12 South: OK, but who saw that weird shit coming? /Neuheisel'd.
• PAC-12 North: Again, NAILED IT.
• SEC West: This whole rematch business helps me out a bit, because I did call for 'Bama in the BCS title game. But I did not see LSU beating the Tide in T-town. I'd call it close enough if weren't for the gross overvaluing of Dan Mullen and Chris Relf; the Other Bulldogs really let me down.
• SEC East: HAHAHA. I picked Georgia to start 2-0 and then fall apart. Then the opposite happened while Florida skidded through at 6-6. Meanwhile, Tennessee took a step back and Vandy surged forward. I was all kinds of wrong.

My Big-12 and SEC East picks were just straight dumpster fires. Beyond that, it's not too terrible. Next up, we'll finish up the look-backs by comparing the FTS Preseason Top-25 to the final AP rankings...should be fun!