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2012 College Football Rankings: Alabama, LSU Top Composite Top 25

Aug 20, 2012, 2:38 PM UTC

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2012 College Football Rankings: USC, LSU, Bama All Claim Top Spots

If you hear both LSU and USC being referred to as “preseason No. 1” this year, just know that both are correct. According to the numbers below, Alabama can also claim a preseason national title. It’s among the murkiest Top 25 pictures in recent memory, with teams as far down as Michigan and Oklahoma earning No. 1 votes in major polls.

Confusion and discord! Time for a look at the wisdom of a crowd of crowds. Included in the composite Top 25 below are the Coaches’ and AP polls, Football Outsiders’ projected F/+ rankings, the SI.com Top 25*, and our own SB Nation Studios Top 25 Countdown. Yet to be included: the final preseason BlogPoll, which will go up next week.

As you can see, USC, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Oklahoma State and Florida are among the most controversial teams, while everyone pretty much agrees on where to slot Oregon, Oklahoma, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Boise State. Your thoughts?

* Some consensus top 25 teams weren’t included in SI’s, which only went to 25. I added a No. 26 ranking in that column for teams that would’ve otherwise finished with averages better than 25. This dinged their overall scores somewhat, in order to reflect their omission from SI.


		Coaches	AP	BlogPoll	SB Nation Studios	SI.com	Football Outsiders	Composite
1	Alabama	2	2		2	1	1	1.600
2	LSU	1	3		1	3	2	2.000
3	USC	3	1		4	2	6	3.200
4	Oregon	5	5		3	4	4	4.200
5	Oklahoma	4	4		5	5	3	4.200
6	Georgia	6	6		6	9	8	7.000
7	Florida State	7	7		7	11	7	7.800
8	South Carolina	9	9		10	7	17	10.400
9	Michigan	8	8		8	13	16	10.600
10	Arkansas	10	10		9	12	15	11.200
11	Wisconsin	12	12		15	6	19	12.800
12	Texas	15	15		13	15	9	13.400
13	West Virginia	11	11		16	10	20	13.600
14	Michigan State	13	13		20	8	24	15.600
15	Stanford	18	21		14	17	11	16.200
16	TCU	17	20		11	21	12	16.200
17	Oklahoma State	19	19		12	26	5	16.200
18	Clemson	14	14		21	14	21	16.800
19	Ohio State	NA	18		17	22	13	17.500
20	Virginia Tech	20	16		18	18	18	18.000
21	Nebraska	16	17		23	19	23	19.600
22	Florida	23	23		19	26	10	20.200
23	Notre Dame	24	26		22	26	14	22.400
24	Boise St.	22	24		24	23	26	23.800
25	Auburn	25	28		26	24	22	25.000