Overrated or Underrated?

I went back to 2007 to see how coaches and AP voters treat OSU in the preseason and how OSU responds throughout the year, the results were interesting…

Oklahoma State

[table id=15 /]

On average they’ve been underrated by about 10 spots in the AP poll and 11 spots in the Coaches Poll [1. The high rankings (48s and 50s) are accounted by polls carrying out the “others receiving votes” and just going ahead and ranking them. In one instance (2008) they were “not ranked” so I went ahead and gave them the first spot after the last team receiving a vote (#52). I also did this with Texas for the 2010 season.]

Let’s look at a few other schools for context.

OU

[table id=16 /]

OU is overrated by about eight spots in each poll.

Here’s your other favorite team to mock as overrated.

Texas

[table id=17 /]

And they have been, by eight spots, very similarly to OU.

I will say, it’s pretty tough when you’re one of these schools to measure up to expectations every year. This is more of an indictment of voters having too much faith in name schools than it is these schools underperforming. Plus one crazy bad year destroys your average when you start in the top five (OSU saw a little of that in 2009 but these guys stare at it every single year).

It should also be noted that in all but one of these years (last year) OU has finished higher than OSU in the final AP poll. Same for Texas in all but two years.

All in all, this data shows what you would expect: that OSU is traditionally (and again, relatively) underrated and OU and Texas somewhat (relatively) overrated on a year by year basis.

We might not be a top five powerhouse but I think this is just the way we like it.