24. Kansas
As I’ve said before, KU’s run was not a fluke—the Jayhawks only took two games by less than a touchdown, a four-point win at Colorado and the three-point win in the Orange Bowl, tough games in tough environments that they led by double digits in both cases with under four minutes to play. Their average margin of victory (26 points per game) was the highest in the country, and even when not padded with non-conference cupcakes, was the highest in Big 12 games (just shy of 19 per game). By the numbers alone, KU was the most balanced, impressive team in the country. And after the Orange Bowl win over Virginia Tech, the “no big wins” argument rings hollow.

So this is not, like, they got lucky - personnel-wise, anyway. The schedule is another story: as shocking as the 11-0 start was, once Nebraska’s defense decided to take a year off, the Cinderella run didn’t actually require KU to play Cinderella, at all; before the finale against Missouri, in fact, the Jayhawks were favored in every game but one, when they were a mere +3 at Kansas State, a vertiable toss-up. The inter-division draw from the South was Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Baylor, i.e. the fourth, fifth, and sixth-place finishers, which meant Kansas didn’t actually beat a team all season that finished with a winning conference record. Forget that this time around. They’ve added a tough non-conference road game (at South Florida), and four games on the conference schedule - Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech from the South, and revamped Nebraska, in Lincoln, where KU hasn’t won since the Lyndon Johnson administration—that project as tougher than any game last year’s team won in the regular season. Then there’s still Missouri at the end.

From that perspective, it’s a testament to the respect I have for Todd Reesing and the offense’s ability to keep up with the conference’s heavier hitters that I kept the Jayhawks in the mix at all over, say, Alabama. But even if they play as well as they did last year, it will be a stunning, stunning performance to threaten double-digit wins again.

Link to the full story here. That is an awfully complementary evaluation of the ‘08 Hawks.