Your too early top 25

College Sports
1

Valenth did an early call thread, with the top 5 in each conference. Let’s do a too early top 25, who are your picks?

Here’s mine:

  1. Alabama - I have a very simple reason for this. Why not? Yes, I’m an Bama hater like most of us, but I have no reason not to put them here.

  2. Clemson - Returning their QB, and a large portion of the defense and return most of their offense.

  3. Ohio State - Although OSU loses JT, Haskins is a much better true QB. Lost a lot to the NFL but will bring back and bring in many athletes on both sides of the ball.

  4. Georgia - This spot was a toss up, but it goes to the Bulldogs. Losing your top two RB’s is tough, but they have a load of them. And they have quite the recruiting class.

  5. Oklahoma - Even though we don’t like him, losing a guy like Baker Mayfield is tough, but Kyler Murray should be able to replace him, somewhat. A big question for the Sooners will be the defense.

  6. Wisconsin - Returning a good game manager at QB is always good. Especially when you bring back all 5 of your starting lineman and the guy who set the freshman FBS record for rushing yards in a season.

  7. Washington - Returning Jake Browning is good at QB as long as he continues to improve. Myles Gaskin declining to enter the draft is huge for the Huskies. They lost their top two defensive players, but still a good defense overall.

  8. Penn State - Losing Barkley is tough, no doubt. But returning your QB, who has continued to silence doubters is huge! Don’t doubt Franklin’s recruiting ability.

  9. Auburn - I’m a little reluctant about this one, considering the departure of your top two running backs. But, they were Stidham at QB. Their big question will be defense in my mind.

  10. Notre Dame - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Notre Dame has been extremely underwhelming the last couple of years. And they lost two top 10 lineman to the NFL. But, ND always reloads at O-line. Wimbush is back at QB, and has an extremely talented recruiting corp.

Remainder of my top 25:

  1. Michigan State
  2. Stanford
  3. Miami (FL)
  4. Michigan
  5. Virginia Tech
  6. USC
  7. Central Florida
  8. Florida State
  9. TCU
  10. LSU
  11. Texas
  12. Boise State
  13. Oklahoma State
  14. South Carolina
  15. Texas A&M

Also in the hunt: Mississippi State; West Virginia; Ohio; Texas Tech; Nebraska.

2

C2009, that is a solid preseason ranking of teams. Roll Tide is a clear number one choice with 2 through 10 being somewhat interchangeable. The fly in the CFP ointment is Notre Dame. If the Domers get by Michigan, they could sneak into the playoffs. The Big10(14) could be left out of the CFP for the second year in a row.

3

I think you got a good grip on things. Only real changes I would make. I think Penn state best big 10 team. Michigan State way over ranked. Virginia tech should be inside top 10 and WVU will be a top 15 team.

4

normally I get Athlon n lindy’s books each year. but this year I couldn’t find them. so I got phil steele’s college publication. here is hoe he sees the top 25.
1- bama
2-clemson
3-ohio state
4-georgia
5-wisconsin
6-michigan
7-washington
8-notre dame
9-oklahoma
10-stanford
11-michigan state
12-penn state
13-auburn
14-usc
15-texas
16-miss. st.
17-miami, fla.
18-fsu
19-boston college
20-texas a&m
21-tcu
22-utah
23-florida
24-south Carolina
25-lsu

other big ten teams he has are northwestern at 34, iowa at 35, Nebraska at 48, Indiana at 55, purdue at 61, Maryland at 64, minn. at 67, the illini at 88, and Rutgers at 97.

5

cant wait to see how the early pre-season rankings compares to what is posted come first of December.

6

nothing towards anyone’s post on this subject…mine was referring to all the pre-season rankings that are released by all the sources that do release the rankings…and man are there oodles of them