Five sleeper candidates for 2012

One of the recurring facets of the Bill James Baseball Abstract book series was his attempt to find leading indicators for whether a team would improve or decline in the following season.

In many cases, the best indicators occurred when a set of statistics showed that a team had a good amount of talent but still had ample room for statistical improvement.

That mindset can be useful in reviewing the college football world to see which mid-level teams -- those with five to seven wins in 2011 -- have the best chance of posting a Top 25-caliber season -- and in some cases, make a run at their conference title -- in 2012. In our analysis, five teams emerged as strong candidates.

To read KC Joyner's list of five 2012 sleeper candidates, plus get complete access to Insider's college football and recruiting content, sign up for ESPN Insider.

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KC Joyner

NFL Insider

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• NFL and CFB analyst for ESPN Insider
• Known as "The Football Scientist"
• Uses proprietary metrics from game tape study