Yeah, I know that PRE-preseason college football rankings are almost always pure crap designed merely to sell magazines during the slow season. And I know that lesser selling publications, like Athlon Sports, always try to pull a few real dark horses out of the bag to sell even more copies. But still, this is ludicrous…

Athlon Sports ranked West Virginia #5 in its pre-preseason rankings!? Yeah, sure. After going 8-5 last year and getting absolutely bitchslapped by that powerhouse Maryland twice, the Hoopies are suddenly national championship contenders. In fact, Athlon ranks the Inbreds in front of Texas, Michigan, LSU, Florida State, and Ohio State. Sure. Why Rodriguez has been recruiting right up there with the Wolverines, Buckeyes, Seminoles, and Bayou Bengals for years now, hasn’t he?

Heck, Rodriguez only began outrecruiting Walt Harris last year.

Look, just because the Mountaineers suddenly have an extremely soft schedule in the new Big East (through no fault of their own) doesn’t mean that they’re suddenly the fifth best team in the nation. It just means that they’re going to win a lot of games. I mean, did anybody really think that TCU could beat USC when the Trojans lost to Cal while the Horned Frogs were on their little run?

Admittedly, it does tickle me a little to see a Big East team ranked so highly because the league is suddenly so soft. It kind of makes Miami and Virginia Tech look a little silly for moving into a tougher league. That being said, get real.

(Not that I don’t think that WVU will have a better team than Pitt will have this fall… but then again, who won’t?)

Hail to the Hoopies being every bit as overrated this year as Pitt was last year.