Table Legend

Rewards standings before and after the bowl games.

Commentary: Rewards ranked the top four teams in the final polls in its own top four as well, but switched the top two teams in the AP poll, placing undefeated Utah slightly ahead of the Florida, who is recognized as the "Consensus Nationally Champion". (Utah was "only" #4 in the Coaches' final poll.) Rewards had Texas Tech as #5 (though their #12 ranking in both final polls is probably a better assessment, given their "bowl game spanking" at the hands of Mississippi), but those teams that Rewards ranked between #6-#9 were in just about those same exact positions in the final polls. Likewise, Rewards matched the polls fairly closely for the pre bowl game rankings as well: the top eight teams in the polls appeared in a somewhat rearranged order in the Rewards ranking; all three agreed on who the #9 and #10 teams were; and the #11 and #12 teams appeared in the opposite order according to Rewards. Overall, the post season "average disagreements" listed in the table above are quite close to the mean of the average values that been have accumulated for the Rewards system, starting with the comparison in 1990 - to the present year: 2008.