Making my Most Improved List has generally been a blessing for teams, as they usually make big turnarounds. In 1999, the #1 most improved team in my Preseason Rankings was Hawaii and they had the NCAA’s largest turnaround on record, going from a winless season in 1998 (0-12) to 9-4 and a bowl victory one year later!!!

The year 2000 was a VERY successful season as well for my Most Improved Teams. Of the top 14 Most Improved Teams that year, TEN went from a losing season to being bowl eligible!!! In 2001 and 2002, nine of the 20 teams on my Most Improved List list each year went from having a non-winning season to making a bowl and in 2003, 8 of the top 20 teams went from a .500 or losing seasons to being bowl eligible.

There was a total of TEN teams that did not have winning records in 2003 who improved to a winning record in ’04. NINE (90%) of them were on my list! In 2005, my top 16 Most Improved Teams made incredible strides. The top 16 Most Improved Teams on my list in 2005 had a combined record of 66-111 (37%) in 2004 and improved to 102-84 (55%) in 2005. Read more…

I have been publishing a Most Improved Teams list since 1999 and the list hit a home run that very first year. I pegged Hawaii as my #1 Most Improved Team and they were coming off an 0-12 record in 1998. The then “Rainbow Warriors” simply set an NCAA record for largest improvement ever by going to 9-4 in 1999!

This year there are 16 teams on my Most Improved List and these are all teams that had losing records last year but ones I believe will be bowl eligible this year. Last season I had 19 teams on the list and 13 of them were bowl eligible at the end of the year with 17 of them improving their record! Do you think it is easy picking teams with losing records that will have a winning record the next year?

I went back to 1992 and there have been 969 teams that had a losing season. Of those 969 teams only 279 had a winning record the next year which is 28.8%. That means if a team is coming off a losing season there is over a 70% chance that they will have another losing record the next year!

Over the last nine years 109 of the teams that have made my Most Improved List have been bowl eligible the next year. In that same nine-year span there have been 475 teams with a losing record and of those 475 only 129 have gone onto a winning record (above .500) the next season (27.1%). Of those 129 teams, 79 of them were on my Most Improve List. Now you do the math here but as you can see very few teams go from a losing record to a bowl the next year if they are not on my Most Improved list.

This blog is about the one that got away. Read more…

My 2011 College Football Preview Magazine has so much information in it that it would take months to go thru it all. It is like 120 media guides rolled into one.

Magazine is a loose term for it as the Preview is more like a book with over 100 pages more than any other college football magazine. Not only does it have more pages but the magazine has 2 to 3 times the amount of information on each page! That gives my magazine 3 to 4 times the amount of information of any other magazine!

I mention all of this because there are even parts of the magazine that I myself forget about during the year. Every spring once I have finished my conference write ups, Top 40, All-American and All-Conference Teams I wrap up the “other” pages in the magazine. One of those pages that I find a lot of fun is the projected stats which is on page 324 and 327.

I have in-depth power ratings which rates each team’s rush offense, pass offense and points scored as well as all three categories for the defense. I have my computer match up each team vs all of their opponents and play the games out during the year. These projected statistics are not some random number I throw into the back of the magazine to fill up space (I never have ANYTHING in the magazine that is used for filler!). They take into account this year’s team vs this year’s schedule and they are remarkably accurate. Read more…

Today’s blog will complete my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day for the past week I have had a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown defensive ppg.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in defensive ppg. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in defensive ppg. Read more…

Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown offensive ppg.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in offensive ppg. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their quarterback from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in offensive ppg. Read more…

Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown total defensive yards.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in total defense. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their star players from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in total defense. Read more…

Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/leas improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown total defensive yards.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in pass defense. First, a team may see significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters especially in the defensive backfield. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their cornerbacks and safeties could see a significant drop in pass defense. Read more…

Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown defensive rush yards.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in rush defense. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters especially on the front 7. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their defensive line and linebackers could see a significant drop in rush defense. Read more…

Today’s blog will continue with my series of analyzing the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will breakdown total offensive yards.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in total offense. First, a team may see a significant improvement if they return a bunch of experienced starters including their quarterback from a team that was relatively inexperienced the year before. Naturally a team that loses a bunch of starters especially their quarterback, running back and receivers from an experienced team will usually see a drop off in total offense. Read more…

Today’s blog will start a series, which will analyze the most/least improved units over the last 20 years. Each day this week I will have a new offensive or defensive statistical category to examine and today I will start with offensive rush yards.

There are many factors that contribute to a significant change in rush yards. First, a new coach may come in and prefer a more run-oriented attack than the previous coach. Naturally a lot more rushing carries will usually equal a lot more yards. Similarly you may see a significant drop in rush yards if the new coach features a pass-happy offense than the previous coach. Read more…