The 20 most overhyped college football teams of the last 20 years

2007: Cal Golden Bears

The 2007 college football season was one of the weirdest, wildest and most wonderful in the history of the sport. It was a year where the last thing you wanted to be was No. 2 in the country.

One of those No. 2 teams to fall, the Cal Golden Bears, did so after an impressive 5-0 start. Head coach Jeff Tedford led Cal to a 10-3 record in 2006, and a No. 14 finish in the AP Poll. It was the third straight season in which the Golden Bears finished ranked, the first such streak since Pappy Waldork led Cal to five straight Top 15 finished from 1947-51.

Ranked No. 12 in the preseason, which was the highest for the program since 1964, Cal beat No. 15 Tennessee 45-31 in the season opener. Tedford’s team then beat Colorado State and Louisiana Tech to finish non-conference play. The Bears got off to a good start in the Pac-10 by beating Arizona 45-27 in the conference opener, and then ascended to the No. 2 spot in the AP Poll by beating No. 11 Oregon 31-24 in Eugene.

Of course, disaster struck. Following a Cal bye week, Oregon State traveled to Berkley and knocked off Cal 31-28, which dropped the Bears to No. 10. A 30-21 loss to UCLA on the road pushed Cal further down the polls before a 31-20 loss at No. 7 Arizona State erased them completely. After a close win against Washington State, Cal lost three more games to finish the regular season 6-6.