The overrated/underrated debate encompasses all sports, but it seems to hit a fever pitch when it concerns college football teams. It can seem like a never-ending debate that depends upon one’s loyalty to a particular conference.

But we can stop the bickering for a little bit because there may be a method to help settle this debate. The website Stassen.com has been tracking preseason prognostications for teams during the last 27 seasons and comparing them with where those teams finish in the final Associated Press Poll released at the end of the season.

The concept is that after a decent length of time, we’ll be able to see the teams that are consistently predicted to be better or worse than they turn out to be when the season ends.

Here is an example of how it works:

If a team is picked as the No. 1 team in the preseason and finishes as the No. 5 team in the final AP Poll, that would be a “-4” score for that season. Similarly, if a team was picked to finish 15th and actually finished 10th, it would be a “+5” score for the year.

If a team isn’t ranked in the Top 25 at the beginning or end of the season, the math is completed as though the team was ranked as “No. 26” in the country. The data on this method goes all the way back to 1989.

Stassen puts the following disclaimer on its data, and it would be wise to keep it in mind when reviewing the numbers:

Note: These numbers do not really reflect how good the teams are; they instead reflect how well they lived up to preseason expectations. Any Sun Belt member would have a score of zero (since they never had a team ranked in preseason or final polls during this span) but that would not mean each of those teams are stronger than the ones (such as Southern Cal) which ended up with negative numbers in this list.

With that considered, here is what the cumulative results of the last 27 seasons tell us:

10 Most Overrated Teams

T1. Texas (-118)
T1. USC (-118)
3. Oklahoma (-93.5)
4. Nebraska (-90.5)
5. Notre Dame (-86.5)
6. Florida State (-83.5)
7. Michigan (-74.5)
8. Florida (-68.5)
9. LSU (-65.5)
10. Miami (-61)

10 Most Underrated Teams

1. Utah (+78)
2. Boise State (+71)
3. Washington State (+70)
4. Oregon (+60.5)
5. TCU (+58)
6. Kansas State (+56)
7. Michigan State (+49.5)
8. Boston College (+44.5)
9. Missouri (+39)
10. Ole Miss (+37.5)

Overrated SEC Teams

1. Florida (-68.5)
2. LSU (-65.5)
3. Texas A&M (-47)
4. Tennessee (-44)
5. Georgia (-36)
6. Auburn (-9.5)

Underrated SEC Teams

1. Missouri (+39)
2. Ole Miss (+37.5)
3. Mississippi State (+31.5)
4. Alabama (+23.5)

Accurately Rated SEC Teams

Arkansas (+5)
Vanderbilt (+5)
South Carolina (+10)

Some of the folks on the college football subreddit used the same methodology to break things down from 2011 to 2015.

Georgia has been the most overrated team over that stretch, and Houston has been the most underrated squad.
Here is how the SEC fared over those four seasons, listed from overrated to underrated:

Georgia (-32)
LSU (-22)
Auburn (-16)
Arkansas (-14)
South Carolina (-12)
Florida (-6)
Texas A&M (-6)
Alabama (-4)
Tennessee (+3)
Vanderbilt (+5)
Ole Miss (+6)
Mississippi State (+10)
Missouri (+19)

Note: Kentucky was not ranked at the beginning or end of those five seasons.

So what can we conclude from this fairly simple methodology?

Here are some thoughts:

• Kentucky is the only SEC team to not register on the top 25 radar (preseason or postseason) during the 27 years examined.
• Florida and LSU tend to receive a very generous preseason ranking, and while those teams are good most seasons, they often have a hard time living up to that billing.
• Just like Missouri has been underrated annually in the SEC East race, so too have the Tigers been traditionally underrated in the preseason prognostications.
• Fans of the Mississippi schools will often tell you they feel slighted when it comes to comparisons to fellow SEC West schools, and it seems to hold true in the national polls. They often perform better than anticipated.