(01-15-2024, 05:35 PM)Giants Wrote: Purdue! Yep. That is correct.
The Failed Four…
Purdue, UVa, Rutgers and Cal. Who will be the first to be voted into the Final Top 25? Who will be the last?
I think Cal will be the first voted into the Final Top 25. They will feast on the weaker competition after their step down into the ACC, and I think it will help them recruit nationally. So of the four, Cal will return first. I think Purdue will be second. I think UVa actually had a long and strong football tradition between 1984 and 2004, finishing in the Top 25 eight times in the 21 years. And they did finish 25th in the Coaches poll in 2019 (had the votes for a #29 finish in the AP). Plus, they're a Southern school.
That leaves Rutgers. They've only finished in the Top 25 four times in school history. They're in an area with poor high school football programs (compared to Florida, Texas, California and the Midwest). They'll be the last.
BTW, here's the number of times each school has finished in the AP Top 25 in their program history, along with Stanford's number:
Stanford, 20
Cal, 14
Purdue, 16
UVa, 9
Rutgers, 4
Audaces fortuna iuvat