ESPN: Bill Connelly's Preseason SP+ college football rankings
No. 14 Texas and No. 25 Nebraska
Schlabach rankings: No. 24 and NR, respectively
Numbers and conventional wisdom agree most of the time, but there's no question that, like the people who design them, systems like SP+ can have an anti-social streak. SP+ was adamant that both Texas and Nebraska would drastically struggle to meet the hype they brought into 2019. Tom Herman's Longhorns began the season 10th in the preseason AP poll, and despite eight wins in two years, Nebraska began the season 24th. SP+, instead, ranked them both outside the top 30 and projected 14 wins between them. They won 13.
That was last year, however. This time around, the Horns and Huskers might be ... gasp ... underrated? Texas just signed another elite recruiting class and, more importantly for SP+'s purposes, brings back quarterback Sam Ehlinger and a defense with infinitely more experience, especially in the secondary. Nebraska returns almost everyone on offense and is projected to make a major leap there. Defense could still hold the Huskers back, but they're experienced in the secondary, at least. Evidently 2020 is going to be the year 2019 was supposed to be for these two once-mighty programs.
