Associated Press has recently published their opening rankings and the top half dozen largely comprises the usual suspects. Having Alabama at one is pretty much a gimme, however, slotting the Sooners at two is probably more of a reflection on their easy (on paper) opening schedule. They look set for a playoff place but their strength of schedule is not great.
Clemson enters the post-Trevor Lawrence era with a humdinger of a game against Georgia. The winner of that could be ranked no 1 after opening day. Seeing Florida down at 13 probably reflects the strength of the SEC again this year. They get both Alabama & Georgia at home this year so they have their destiny pretty much in their own hands. We would edge them a little higher.
Placing North Carolina at 10 made us roll our eyes! We are not sure we will rank them in our opening 25 and Miami also look far too high. We are also a lot less positive about USC, LSU & Indiana.
On a more positive note, it’s nice to see some Group of Five teams ranked early, and we think that Coastal Carolina could be a good bet for the “At Large Bowl” slot this year. Seeing Cincinnati at 8 did make us blink briefly, however, they have quite a few starters returning. They have a couple of marquee games on their schedule and were they to go unbeaten then they could push for a playoff berth.
AP Top 25 Opening Rankings
1 Alabama
2 Oklahoma
3 Clemson
4 Ohio State
5 Georgia
6 Texas A&M
7 Iowa State
8 Cincinnati
9 Notre Dame
10 North Carolina
11 Oregon
12 Wisconsin
13 Florida
14 Miami
15 USC
16 LSU
17 Indiana
18 Iowa
19 Penn State
20 Washington
21 Texas
22 Coastal Carolina
23 Louisiana
24 Utah
25 Arizona State
The other teams receiving votes are listed below. The Cowboys and the Rebels being near misses is no real surprise and we might end up sneaking both into our final pre-season top 25. Seeing Michigan with only 12 votes is a shock though and it might just give Jim Harbaugh the motivation he needs to get them into a decent bowl game.
We think West Virginia might be a bit better too. Not top 25 but higher than their voting poll indicates. They were 6-4 last year and they have just given head coach Neal Brown a 2-year contract extension.
Also considered
Oklahoma State 107
Ole Miss 106
TCU 40
Liberty 36
Auburn 32
NC State 14
Michigan 12
Northwestern 8
Nevada 7
Boise State 7
Ball State 6
BYU 6
UCF 5
Houston 5
Boston College 5
West Virginia 3
Army 2
UCLA 2
UAB 2
So there it is AP’s thoughts as to who the top teams are. Preseason polls are meaningless in the grand scheme of things but it’s always fun to have a guess.
We will have our opening rankings decided soon bit in the meantime why not check out the Coaches Poll top 25.
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