It’s preseason top 25 time, and we’re officially in Week 1.
16 different rankings, combined to make a consensus preseason top 25
Spoiler alert: your team is behind the Tide.
Advertiser-USA TODAY NETWORK
But in a sea of preseason polls, it can be hard to pick one as the best judge of you college football team’s preseason status. Fear not — I’ve combed the internet to get a composite of many of the notable polls and computer rankings.
Those are: the AP Poll, Bill Connelly’s S&P+, Bud Elliott’s Blue Chip Ratio, the Coaches Poll, Athlon, CBS, two ESPN rankings, Sports Illustrated, Phil Steele, Sporting News, The Athletic, Sagarin, Billingsley, Football Writers Association of America, and Playoff odds via Bovada, all combined into one top 25.
If that doesn’t give you an accurate portrayel of the preseason prognostications for your team, I don’t know what will. Each team received a point value corresponding to their ranking in each system. No. 1 in each poll got 25 points, No. 2 got 24, etc., and then all those numbers got added together.
Combining all the top 25s into one, here’s what I have.
- Alabama
- Clemson
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Washington
- Oklahoma
- Wisconsin
- Auburn
- Penn State
- Miami
- Michigan
- Notre Dame
- Michigan State
- Stanford
- USC
- Florida State
- Mississippi State
- Texas
- West Virginia
- TCU
- Virginia Tech
- LSU
- Boise State
- UCF
- Florida
LOL of course Bama’s No. 1.
Not really sure why you’d expect anything else. Of the top 25s surveyed, the Tide were No. 1 in all but two of them. Clemson was a near-unanimous No. 2.
While the Playoff national champs sit atop the composite poll, last season’s other national champions are, uhh, not anywhere near the top.
UCF was prepared for the DISRESPECT after their response to their preseason AP Poll ranking.
But recent history has showed that mid major teams that burst on the scene often don’t follow that success up.
I thought Michigan was surprisingly high.
I’m not really sure where I would rank the Wolverines heading into the season, but No. 11 seems pretty high for a consensus. But then I think about the fact that last year was supposed to be a rebuilding year and that most of that talent is coming back, maybe this is the year Jim Harbaugh’s bunch will finish higher than third in the division.
Texas is [bringing a lot of pieces] back!
The Horns can be expected to take a leap this season. Tom Herman’s program just joined the select group of teams with enough talent to win the national championship.
Say hello to Mississippi State, this year’s most popular sleeper team.
The Bulldogs sit at No. 17, and they’re the team that everyone says is so underrated that they might actually end up overrated when it’s all said and done.
I don’t have an “others receiving votes” section, but I will make one honorable mention
Phil Steele ranked Arkansas State No. 25 in his preseason poll, therefore they received one (1) ranking point in my exercise.
See More:
