Another year of pigskin glory is upon us. Well, actually it won’t technically be upon so for another three weeks or so, but that won’t stop me from attempting to rank the top twenty-five Division I teams in the land. On the list are some of the usual suspects as well as some teams that are out to make a name for themselves. This list will be completely different come December, and I plan to come back and check out how right (wrong) I was in my selections. So without further adieu, here are your preseason power rankings.
I’m not really going to into detail about why I made these selections like I do with my NFL power rankings. College football is so much more precise than the NFL when it comes to ranking teams. A team like the Chargers last season would not have made the top twenty-five in a NCAA-esque poll because of the amount of losses that they had during the season, but they were obviously one of the best teams in the NFL.
This is not an exact science, and I’ll probably be wrong about a lot of these teams. What I want to know is, what do you think? Throw me an email cosburn@thefatherlife.com or post a message below and tell me how wrong or how right I am.
- Florida
- Texas
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- USC
- Penn State
- Mississippi
- Virginia Tech
- LSU
- Oklahoma State
- California
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Boise State
- TCU
- Georgia Tech
- Nebraska
- Florida State
- Iowa
- North Carolina
- Miami
- Kansas
- Utah
- Notre Dame
*Almost made it: Brigham Young, Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Oregon State, Clemson, South Carolina, South Florida, and Syracuse (just kidding).
You might be wondering why I placed some of the teams on the list and why I left some off. The number one spot is obvious. Until someone dethrones the Gators, Florida is #1. I don’t think they’ll repeat, just because it’s not very easy, but with Tebow at the helm they are always dangerous. Texas and Oklahoma are always nasty, and both have Heisman hopeful quarterbacks in defending winner Chad Bradford (Oklahoma) and Colt McCoy (Texas). The two top five teams that I’m not 100% on are Ohio State and ‘Bama. Both teams have a history of getting their fans’ hopes up only to dash them away. USC never seems to have a down year and have the look of a BCS team yet again, even with untested Aaron Corp taking over for Mark Sanchez
The other top twenty-five teams I’m keeping an eye on are Boise State, Utah, and Notre Dame. The first because of usual weak scheduling enables them to feast on outclassed opponents. Boise State does have a tough start. They open at home against #13 Oregon on September 3rd. If they can get past the Ducks, it should be easy sailing for the rest of the season. Utah’s problem might be that their schedule is too hard. They went from not getting enough respect because of a weak schedule to tilts with #13 Oregon, #16 TCU, and Brigham Young. Notre Dame is an intriguing top twenty-five pick. As a fan of the Irish, I’m always cautious when they are ranked because it usually means that I should be ready for a let-down. At least they are barely ranked. If they end up in the top twenty-five at the end of the year I’ll be happy. It all hinges on the development of Jimmy Clausen, receivers Michael Floyd and Golden Tate, and the running backs by committee. The defense is solid, and if all the pieces fit correctly, this puzzle will look a lot like a BCS birth… or at least a nice late December bowl game.
Image credit: Jason Aaberg
30 year old freelance writer and The Father Life‘s resident beer columnist and sports editor. He also writes about fine beverages for drinkingmadeeasy.com and Chilled Magazine. On top of that, he writes about college and professional lacrosse for insidelacrosse.com. He’s also written for Genesee Valley Parenting Magazine, the Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper and ESPN.com. “Osburn on Tap” appears monthly in THE FATHER LIFE. For questions, comments, or if you have a story idea for Chris, throw him an email cosburn@thefatherlife.com. Also, follow him on twitter http://www.twitter.com/chrisosburn