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Final Top 25 NCAA Football Teams 2008-09

1 Florida
No debate here. Florida moves up a space after beating Oklahoma 24-14 in the National Championship to become the best college football team of the 2008-2009 season. And with the SEC turning in the strongest bowl season performance (6-2), Florida moves far ahead of even second place. To put that in perspective, the gators played SIX bowl champions during the season. (And only two of those six were expected to win pre-bowls.)

2 USC
jumps three spaces after blasting Penn State in the Rose Bowl 38-24. This has seemingly become routine for the trojans. USC has quickly become the Big 10's worst nightmare. Aiding the trojans final ranking, the Pac-10 amazingly went 5-0 during the bowl season- the only conference to go undefeated in bowls.

3 Oklahoma
falls two spaces after losing in the National Championship to Florida 24-14. Heisman-winner Sam Bradford failed to put up more than 14 points the entire game, continuing the curse. On the bright side, the sooner's defense proved strong and their early-season win over TCU still puts Oklahoma ahead of their rival, Texas.

4 Texas
moves down a space after underperforming, yet still beating Ohio State 24-21, at the Fiesta Bowl. Every top-tier Big 12 team lost or struggled greatly during the bowl season, and the longhorns were no different. Las Vegas expected them to win by 8.5 points, but it took a last second drive by Colt McCoy to save the day for Texas, cementing a 12-1 season. (Damn you, Crabtree!)

5 Utah
If you have one opportunity to overperform, make sure it's the one time people are actually watching you. At least that's what the Utes (better not be a tribe-name) did to jump up three spots. Utah gave the mighty SEC the only embarrassment of the bowl season (but it was a whopper) beating Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl. This performance ensures the Utes to be the only team to go undefeated and quite possibly the strongest mid-major team in the history of college football. However, it still doesn't erase the Ute's three-point victories over Oregon State, TCU and New Mexico or its two-point vitory over Michigan.

6 Alabama
moves up a space on the back of the SEC. Despite being humbled by Utah in the Sugar Bowl to the tune of 17-31, the SEC had a break-out bowl season going an unexpected 6-2 in tough match-ups, making the crimson tide's 12-0 season streak look a lot more impressive.

7 TCU
jumps two spaces after holding back Boise State to a 17-16 victory in the Poinsettia Bowl. The Mountain West had mixed success during the bowl season, going 3-2, but its top two teams turned in strong performances.

8 Penn State
falls two spaces after underperforming in the Rose Bowl, losing 24-38 to USC. The Big 10 was definitely the big loser of the bowl season, going 1-6 (.143). But despite the sour ending, an 11-2 season with only losses to Iowa and USC is a smashing success for the nittany lions.

9 Texas Tech
drops five spaces after being manhandled by Mississippi 34-47 in the Cotton Bowl. The red raiders were expected to make the National Championship for several weeks at the end of the season, so this match-up to an 8-4 Mississippi was seen as a mis-match. 92% of yahoo voters picked Texas Tech to win. But the Big 12 turned in an extremely disappointing bowl season, perhaps even more disappointing than the Big 10 because the Big 12 was expected to easily win most of their bowls. Instead the conference went 4-3 with much help from their mid-tier teams. Despite the sour end, an 11-2 season is something to be proud of.

10 Mississippi
may have gained the most from the bowl season, jumping an astronomical 13 spaces after wolloping Texas Tech 47-34 in the Cotton Bowl. Houston Nutt has the rebels (better not be a Civil War reference) flying (and Arkansas fans crying). And not only Ole Miss gained from the bowl season, but the SEC in its entirety shined.

11 Oregon
jumps seven spaces after out-running Oklahoma State in the Holiday Bowl 42-31. No Pac-10 team over-performed as much as the ducks, and Pac-10 teams went 5-0 with larger margins of victory than expected.

12 Boise State
moves down a space after losing to TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl 17-16. The WAC as a whole under-performed, going 1-4 (.200), but Boise State's three-point victory over Oregon has never looked better.

13 Oregon State
jumps eight spaces after shutting-out Pittsburgh in the Sun Bowl 3-0 (not a typo). The beavers were forced to win on defense after late-season injuries to the Rodgers brothers (who were pretty much Oregon State's entire offense). But no matter, Oregon State shut-down Pittsburgh's offense more than any other defense shutted down any other offense this bowl season.

14 Ohio State
drops four spaces after losing to Texas in the final seconds of the Fiesta Bowl 24-21. On the bright side, the buckeyes were incredibly competitive and they weren't really expected to be. On the negative side, this bowl season has seeming "exposed" both Big 10 and Big 12 conferences as overrated.

15 Georgia
moves up a space after beating Michigan State 24-12 in the Capital One Bankruptcy Bowl. The bulldogs weren't benefited as much as the other 11 SEC teams because a lot of their earlier competition was unexpectedly crapped on this bowl season (Central Michigan, Alabama, Georgia Tech).

16 California
returns to the list with a bullet after shooting down Miami 24-17 in the Emerald Bowl. More importantly, the Pac-10 went 5-0 and earlier Cal opponents greatly over-performed. In fact, SIX of the bears' season opponents would become bowl champions. (The only team who played more bowl champions during the season is Stanford with seven.) California truly is America's team.

17 Florida State
drops three spaces after turning in a strong performance, beating Wisconsin 42-13 in the Champs Sports Bowl. The problem is, the ACC greatly under-performed this season. Many were expecting the conference to go 8-2 (myself included). Instead, the ACC went 4-6 with the only two inspiring performances coming from Florida State and Virginia Tech (and maybe Wake Forest).

18 Virginia Tech
also drops three spaces despite finally winning the Orange Bowl against Cincinnati 20-7. The hokies are in the same position as the Seminoles racists. Only a few ACC teams actually delivered on what was a very promising season from the conference.

19 Missouri
falls six spaces after a last-ditch effort puts the tigers ahead of the Northwestern wildcats 30-23 in the Alamo Bowl. Despite being perhaps the biggest favorites of the bowl season (at 12.5 points), Missouri's struggling come-from-behind victory became the bowl season's first and loudest signals that the Big 12 conference was not nearly as strong as advertised.

20 Oklahoma State
falls eight spaces after failing to stop Oregon 31-42 in the Holiday Bowl. The cowboys started the season 7-0 but would later disappoint, finishing 9-4 with greater doubts hanging over the Big 12.

21 LSU
was one of the many SEC surprises this bowl season- perhaps the biggest. The tigers move onto the list after blowing-out Georgia Tech 38-3 despite being four-point underdogs. The regular season was all about the ACC's strength over the SEC with Georgia Tech's victory over Georgia the poster game. But LSU and the SEC in general really flipped the script during the bowl season, completely outpowering the ACC, and none moreso dramatically than the tigers' victory.

22 Iowa
moves up two spaces after demolishing South Carolina 31-10 in the Outback Bowl. This game was definitely the exception of the bowl season: the Big Ten's blistering win and the SEC's crushing loss. Well, at least the Outback Bowl goes a long way to helping the Big 10 save face and to helping the SEC blow-hards to SHUT.UP. :)

23 Nebraska
returns to the list after upsetting Clemson 26-21 in the Gator Bowl. The cornhuskers and Kansas jayhawks would prove, perhaps, that the Big 12 held most of its strength in the middle-tier of its conference.

24 Arizona
moves onto the list for the first time this season after beating BYU in the Last Vegas Bowl 31-21. After the Pac-10 went 1-6 against the Mountain West, the Pacific Coast conference really needed a hero to step up and silence the detractors claiming the Mountain-West was indeed superior. Well, the wildcats became that hero, going above and beyond by beating Bigot Young by ten points.

25 Wake Forest
returns to the list after becoming the first bowl champions of season, beating Navy 29-19 in the Eaglebank (?) Bowl. This game was actually a re-match, a chance for revenge after Navy beat the demon deacons earlier in the season 24-17. Obviously, don't mess with Wake Forest without expecting payback.

Top 10 Conferences

1 SOUTHEASTERN
2 BIG 12
3 ATLANTIC COAST
4 PAC-10
5 BIG EAST
6 BIG TEN
7 MOUNTAIN WEST
8 CONFERENCE USA
9 I-A INDEPENDENTS
10 WESTERN ATHLETIC