[teejers1]

To quell a gambling jones, these pre-season O/Us may have some utility.

But as a measure of how well a team actually performs in-season, they are virtually worthless.  For example, many might say the O/U on Stanford going into the season was 8.5 wins and because Stanford secured 9 wins, they had a good/over-performing season.  Hogwash.  For example, if the line-setters knew that Love would be the most explosive RB in college football and amass video game stats before the ankle injury, then the line may well have been at 10.  Who knows?

Now, Stanford may have had a good and over-performing season (or may not have), but it had nothing to do with preseason prognostications and everything to do with how the team played up to its potential week in and week out.  Encompassed in this is how good the opponent really turned out to be, respective team injuries, etc. 

[teejers1]

To quell a gambling jones, these pre-season O/Us may have some utility.

But as a measure of how well a team actually performs in-season, they are virtually worthless.  For example, many might say the O/U on Stanford going into the season was 8.5 wins and because Stanford secured 9 wins, they had a good/over-performing season.  Hogwash.  For example, if the line-setters knew that Love would be the most explosive RB in college football and amass video game stats before the ankle injury, then the line may well have been at 10.  Who knows?

Now, Stanford may have had a good and over-performing season (or may not have), but it had nothing to do with preseason prognostications and everything to do with how the team played up to its potential week in and week out.  Encompassed in this is how good the opponent really turned out to be, respective team injuries, etc.