1. I am not sure how to answer this question but I would go with Alabama because they are undeserving but probably good enough to make it. I will say that Alabama had a lot of intangibles against them with very difficult road games where teams played some of their best games. It is kind of the opposite of Georgia who had a schedule line up to totally favor Georgia. When I do preseason rankings, I look a lot at schedules and how they line up. This is why I picked Georgia over Alabama in the pick'ems. Georgia had a softer schedule with most their tough matchups being at home in games that favored Georgia from an intangible perspective.
2. Dang, a lot of choices here. I want to say the B1G in general was disappointing. Michigan State, Purdue, and Wisconsin all laid major eggs. This is why Michigan and Ohio State basically went through the league unchallenged. Even Penn State had an easy road outside of those two listed. Oklahoma State was another surprise.
From an opposite perspective, I though both Oregon and USC were way overrated but they lived up to hype despite their recent losses.
3. Probably Kentucky or Purdue but BYU and Maryland are honorable mentions. All four of these teams were very up and down.
A team that is off the radar but was really disappointing and choked a lot was Pittsburgh. If you look at their season, they could have actually been 12-0 had they held onto four quarter leads. They really shouldn't have lost to Georgia Tech or Louisville. Both games had a Penn State vs. Ohio State type of meltdown with the offense turning over the ball. They also lead North Carolina and Tennessee in the 4th but both of those teams did stage a rally. (Correction: They tied Tennessee in the 4th, not lead them to force OT).
