The end of the bowl season has brought out the last piece of the USF 2017 football puzzle, the final polls.  The so-called College Football Playoff (#notaplayoff) never ranked the Bulls in their top 25 teams, despite their two losses coming in the final seconds of games against Houston and UCF, a team they deemed top 15 worthy.

1              Alabama 2              Georgia 3              Oklahoma 4              Clemson 5              Ohio St 6              UCF 7              Wisconsin 8              Penn St 9              TCU 10           Auburn 11           Notre Dame 12           USC 13           Miami FL

14           Oklahoma St 15           Michigan St 16           Washington 17           Northwestern 18           LSU 19           Mississippi St 20           Stanford 21           South Florida 22           Boise St 23           NC State 24           Virginia Tech 25           Memphis

 

The Bulls finished the year out with a Christmas Eve eve win in the Birmingham Bowl over Texas Tech, earning them a 21^st ranking in the final AP Poll for the 2017 season.  They are joined in the top 25 by AAC conference-mates, UCF and Memphis at 6^th and 25^th, respectively.

The final USA Today Amway Coaches’ Poll has very similar results to the AP Poll.

1              Alabama 2              Georgia 3              Oklahoma 4              Clemson 5              Ohio St 6              Wisconsin 7              UCF 8              Penn St 9              TCU 10           USC 11           Notre Dame 12           Auburn 13           Miami FL

14           Oklahoma St 15           Washington 16           Michigan St 17           Northwestern 18           LSU 19           Stanford 20           Mississippi St 21           South Florida 22           Boise St 23           NC State 24           Memphis 25           Virginia Tech

 

The Coaches’ Poll ranks the Bulls, 21^st, also, as the second highest ranked AAC team, behind #7 UCF and ahead of #24 Memphis.  

 

The remainder of polls and ranking systems in this segment are a mixed bag. 

 

Interestingly, only one rank finished lower than the previous ranking.  The Congrove CCR ranking, which has been a high rank outlier all season, has them ranked 22^nd, down from 15 before the Birmingham Bowl win.  Also noteworthy is that was the preseason rank of USF by that same system, joining the USA Today Coaches’ Poll and ESPN Football Power Index in accurately predicting their rank of USF in the preseason.  Many major media outlets have released their "too early rankings" for the 2018 season.  USF does not appear to be on the radar, which isn't too surprising considering they will be losing a ton of seniors to graduation.

 

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