Outside College Football’s Top 25: Possible Party Crashers

If I have a choice of watching another sport besides college football, it has to be boxing. I have seen all of the greats throughout the years, and my favorite right now is Manny Pacquiao.

Now Manny is a great boxer, exciting to watch, the most popular person in the history of the Philippines, and just one of the good guys in sports—but the real reason I’ve followed his career so closely is one of my best friends happens to be his bodyguard.

While it gives me a great excuse to go out to Vegas with the guys when Manny is fighting, I’ve found that following his career has given me another useful skill in life.

In Chicago, the dominant airline is United.  I’m not sure if you’ve tried calling them lately, but it isn’t easy to get a live person (I have a whole shtick I do impersonating the process that goes something like, “hmm...I didn’t get that, it sounded like you said Pete Schmitt, press one if this is correct; hmm...I didn’t quite get that, it sounded like you said Chuck Woo, press one if this correct").

When you finally do get a live person, they’re in the Philippines, and aside from the language barrier, United Airlines doesn’t seem to be the most helpful and caring company out there.  In fact, their customers are usually met with an attitude that quite frankly has “you should feel honored United will take your hard-earned money” written all over it.

So readers, if you ever remember anything I ever write, let it be this: If you ever want real good customer service from United, just mention in passing that you are a big fan of Manny Pacquiao.  They’ll treat you like you’re a long-lost cousin.

So where was I going with this?  That’s right—I was all set to talk about teams that didn’t make the AP Poll’s top 25 and didn’t make the USA Today Coaches' Poll’s top 25, but nonetheless should be forces to be reckoned with.

The coaches and media never seem to get it right, and in years like last year, no one seems to want to win it.  That presents a chance for teams that started unranked to actually move past the big guys.

There are several of those teams out there.  Let’s take a quick look at who I think has the best chance to move up the rankings and shake things up.

(read the rest here)