By: Ryan Moreland (@ryanmoreland)
Now that we know exactly how each conference ended, why not take a look back at how each conference was projected to finish? For those who don’t know, we do a coaches poll at the beginning of the season. Each AD submits his predictions on how he thinks the conference will finish. These are all weighted together and the result is the conference preseason coaches poll. So, how good were our ADs at picking their conferences? Let’s find out.
ACC
| Actual Rank | Projected Rank | Team |
| 1 | 2 | Florida State |
| 2 | 1 | Miami |
| 3 | 3 | North Carolina |
| 4 | 4 | Clemson |
| 5 | 5 | Virginia Tech |
| 6 | 6 | Notre Dame |
Well, the ACC ADs clearly know what they are talking about. This was by far the closest conference to getting the projections right. If you flip the score from the Florida State vs Miami game in Week 8, then they would have been perfect.
There were two ADs from the conference whose projections were perfect. Clemson’s Logan Wetzel and Miami’s George Yost both had the order exactly right.
Big10
| Actual Rank | Projected Rank | Team |
| 1 | 5 | Ohio State |
| 2 | 1 | USC |
| 3 | 3 | Penn State |
| 4 | 6 | Michigan State |
| 5 | 2 | Michigan |
| 6 | 4 | Oregon |
Well, this didn’t go as expected at all. As you can see, the projected fifth-place team was the undefeated Big10 Champ. Michigan was expected to finish second in the conference, but they fell to fifth. There was a lot the Big10 ADs didn’t see coming this season.
There was one AD, who was a good bit closer than the others, but no one was perfect. Michigan State AD Antonio McDaniel had USC in first and Ohio State in second. If you flipped those on his list, then he would have had a perfect projection.
Big XII
| Actual Rank | Projected Rank | Team |
| 1 | 4 | Colorado |
| 2 | 2 | Texas A&M |
| 3 | 1 | Texas |
| 4 | 6 | Oklahoma |
| 5 | 3 | LSU |
| 6 | 5 | West Virginia |
This all the craziness that took place at the end of the season in the Big XII, it would have been shocking if the ADs got it right. With that said, they got it really wrong. Colorado was supposed to be hoping for a vote-in, but they are conference champs. Oklahoma was supposed to be walked over and they finished fourth. The projections were not close at all. If you need evidence of why we play the games, here it is.
By far the closest to getting a perfect projection was Oklahoma AD Dustin Halland LSU AD Drake Babineau. Both had Texas in first and Colorado in third place. If you flip those, their guesses are correct.
SEC
| Actual Rank | Projected Rank | Team |
| 1 | 1 | Auburn |
| 2 | 3 | Kentucky |
| 3 | 4 | Georgia |
| 4 | 5 | Florida |
| 5 | 2 | Alabama |
| 6 | 6 | Tennessee |
The SEC was the second closest conference to their projections behind the ACC. If Alabama just moved up to two, then the projections would have been perfect. However, there were no ADs that had a perfect projection.
The closest the SEC got to perfect was Auburn AD Justin Duke. Duke had Florida and Alabama flipped, but the rest of his list was perfect.
