That’s fair. The conversation devolved a bit towards holistic conference strength because that’s historically been a decent indicator of a team’s end-of-season readiness (In past years, Stanford and Maryland had tough starts, but both looked great by season’s end. There have been a few posters who ascribed UConn’s 2017 and 2018 FF losses to the weak AAC as well).
But to the original point: this year is as wide open as we’ve seen in some time. I do think the national champion pool has to be, in rough order of likelihood
SC/UConn (splitting hairs — tonight will tell!)
Stanford
NC State
Louisville
Texas A&M
Maryland
Baylor
It’s hard to envision anyone else getting to the end. But hey, that’s why we play the games!
