Perhaps not, at least not at this point. With the season opening up tomorrow night, I suppose I had better post my own preseason top 25 list.
This list is intended to reflect which teams are better, not necessarily which teams are likely to be highly-ranked at the end of the year. For that reason, I won’t be including Hawaii, but I will include a mess of SEC teams. Just because some of them will end up with as many as 4 or 5 losses, there probably won’t be this many of them in the final rankings. I also will not be including Duke on the list, for reasons that pass Steve Spurrier’s understanding.
I’m not a college football expert, nor am I even a typical crazy hardcore SEC fan (even though I like Tennessee). Regardless, I’m putting this up for everyone to see.
- USC
- Michigan
- LSU
- West Virginia
- Texas
- Florida
- Oklahoma
- Virginia Tech
- Louisville
- Wisconsin
- Tennessee
- California
- Georgia
- Florida State
- Ohio State
- Penn State
- UCLA
- Nebraska
- South Carolina
- Texas A&M
- Oregon
- Alabama
- Missouri
- TCU
- Rutgers
Feel free to tell me how I’m wrong. I’m sure I am.
Now, before I get off of this topic, it’s not too late to grab Phil Steele’s magazine at your local bookstoore. It’s the only college football preview magazine you need.
jfwiii.net 
I would really like to rake you over the coals for not including Arkansas in your Top 25, but I’m really not convinced that they deserve to be there either.
Between a heavily diminished defense, a mediocre quarterback and a head coach who is only imaginative when it comes to figuring out ways to preserve his job, it could very easily be a disappointing season here in Fayetteville.
The fact that our best player will have to deal with the expectations of winning the Heisman probably won’t help either.
Arkansas is one of those teams that’s hard to project. McFadden is an unbelievable talent, but the defense isn’t as good, and like you said, Casey Dick is mediocre. It’s hard to believe they could go from being a huge surprise team to a huge disappointment, but they could easily finish fourth in that division. The SEC is deep, but the #8 team isn’t likely to be considered successful on a national scale.
Right now I can’t wait to see how it all works out, but ask me again on Monday if Tennessee loses Saturday night…
Phil Steele is my hero. When I grow up, I want to be Phil Steele.
Also, Michigan #2? ESPN called, and they’d like to hire you as an analyst.
Would you rather see me on TV, or Mark May?
Let the record show that Michigan fell to Appy State, whom I didn’t bother going to see here in Chattanooga last year.
Perhaps I won’t make the same mistake if they make it again this year. It’s hard to imagine that they won’t, if they can knock off Michigan at The Big House.
Ha, you already stole my thunder on making fun of your Michigan pick.
Mr. Oliver taught you well.
Indeed, I figured I’d better throw that out there pretty quickly.
As for Tennessee, I think I’ve seen one too many dump-off passes on 3rd-and-9 that go for a 2-3 yard gain. That’s the best they have against the #12 team in the country? And all of those missed tackles…wow, I just can’t express my disappointment.
With the Braves also losing the Mets series today, I guess now I can put my entire focus this fall on the 49ers and my fantasy teams.
11/17 : UTC at Appalachian State. Should be an amusing end to Rodney Allison’s tenure in Chattanooga.
As to the short passes on third down, I would guess the inexperienced wide receivers weren’t able to get open or running poor routes. I would really doubt the guys in the backfield were Ainge’s intended targets until the 4th quarter when it was clear Cutcliffe thought the short passes were the team’s best way to pick up yards.
Should be interesting to see how the vertical passing game looks against Southern Miss’ defense next week. They aren’t exactly pushovers.