Shakin' The Southland Ballot - Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 4 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 5 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 6 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 7 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
| 8 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 9 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 10 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 11 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 12 | Texas A&M Aggies | -- |
| 13 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 14 | Mississippi St. Bulldogs | -- |
| 15 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -- |
| 16 | Missouri Tigers | -- |
| 17 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 18 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 19 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -- |
| 20 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 21 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 22 | Auburn Tigers | -- |
| 23 | Iowa Hawkeyes | -- |
| 24 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
| 25 | Navy Midshipmen | -- |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
Like every preseason poll, completely meaningless, but I did use some reasoning
I dont quite rank teams where they will end up, nor do I use it like a power poll of who is better than who, but rather a mixture of the two types. In the preseason for this year I figure its better to rank them based on who I think would beat the teams below them on a neutral field if they played today. Once the season starts I make the lower teams earn their rise upwards.
Oklahoma is loaded, everywhere, and their edge over Bama is QB experience. If LSU loses Jordan Jefferson for the opener, which does seem likely, then I think LSU loses to Oregon no matter where its played.
At the moment, I'm not buying the FSU hype machine, not enough to put them in the Top 6 as many pollsters are doing. Still, theyre solid enough to win at least 10 against this schedule, so they'd need to be at least in that 7-12 range.
A&M is a team others are pumping alot, maybe because of the SEC, and because of their late season flash last year, but until Mike Sherman can do it a whole year he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from me.
15-25 is a bit of a toss up, because you never know where they all sort out until the games start, so I've erred on the postseason projection to rank them as to where I think they'll end up in December. I think UGA will be much improved, and Auburn deserves a ranking even with half the team gone. Texas has too much talent to not improve enough to be ranked at the end of the year. Navy will be solid and dependable, maybe beat somebody good, and probably finish up with 9-10 wins.
I refuse to rank Clemson until we beat somebody.
Argue amongst yourselves and we can adjust.