lots of people picked 8-4/9-3 before the year and lots of people went 10-2 as an optimistic prediction knowing that 9-3 would be acceptable.
8-4/9-3 is just light years away from 10-2 and is pretty far away from 11-1 which is very close to undefeated but not the same at all.
It is amazing how greedy our little animal minds get as a season's builds.