Posted on 08/02/2018 10:40:23 AM PDT by blam
The first Coaches Poll of the 2018 college football season came out Thursday. Here’s the full preseason top 25, topped by the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide:
1.Alabama
2.Clemson
3.Ohio State
4.Georgia
5.Oklahoma
6.Washington
7.Wisconsin
8.Miami
9.Penn State
10.Auburn
11.Notre Dame
12.Michigan State
13.Stanford
14.Michigan
15.USC
16.TCU
17.Virginia Tech
18.Missisippi State
19.Florida State
20.West Virginia
21.Texas
22.Boise State
23.UCF
24.LSU
25.Oklahoma State
Also getting votes, and closest to the top 25: South Carolina, Florida, Oregon, Utah, Northwestern, Texas A&M, and Kansas State, among others.
The Coaches Poll doesn’t matter much, but no polls do until December, so there’s no reason not to lean in for now.
There are a million rankings systems floating around this sport. The first one that ultimately matters is the one the College Football Playoff selection committee puts out on the first Sunday in December. That determines who makes the Playoff and the New Year’s bowls. The committee puts out weekly rankings for a month before that, but even those aren’t binding in any way, as teams can leapfrog each other at the committee’s behest.
Until the committee rankings start coming around Halloween, the gold standard of polls is the AP Poll. That media ranking is the one you’ll see most commonly cited through about Week 8, by SB Nation, other media outlet, and teams themselves (unless some team is ranked higher in the Coaches Poll than the AP, in which case that could flip). The preseason AP doesn’t have much predictive value for the final rankings of any kind, either.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at sbnation.com ...
Go Huskies.
If Urban Meyer is shown the door THE Ohio State University will not justify their ranking.
Please let there be a camera to catch the Harbaugh reaction to not being in the top 10.
No chance for Virginia Tech this year. The defense has been picked clean by players doing stupid things.
For most of my family’s sake, I hope Florida doesn’t suck.
Amen.
5.56mm
Washington #6. Ok, that's hilarious.
(*sigh*) My Drake Bulldogs are disrespected again, I see. Maybe next year.
San Diego State top 25 and bowl game bet on it.
My initial thought, exactly.
The Bullies will take the west.... someday
Looking forward seeing them in Starkvegas this year
San Diego State
After the Chargers left a buddy and I went to a game, cheap, on the 50 yard line, and college girls everywhere and great football.
My OK State Cowboys getting some early season love @ #25 is pleasantly surprising, especially with a new D-coord after firing the previous guy.
I wanna see Bama win again. But replace the entire secondary makes me doubtful.
QB prediction: Jalen will win the starting job because he’s more predictable.
Defense prediction for 2019: If Tua is the starter this year then next year’s defense will be totally amazing. All my life Alabama was slow to change their offense whenever Bama had a national championship caliber coach who thinks defense first (i.e. Saban, Stallings, Bryant, Thomas). So when everybody else is trying new offensive styles (i.e wishbone, I-formation, spread offense, dual threat quarterback), Bama goes years without doing the same. But when they finally do change their offense, while they learn how to execute the new offensive scheme the defensive minded head coach learns enough about it to stop it the next year. (i.e. Stallings incorporating the spread offense in ‘91 led to awesome defense in ‘92 that knew how to stop the spread offense. Saban incorporating a little bet of HUNH lead to Bama being able to stop HUNH.) So, if Tua winds up being the starting QB...while we have a new secondary that’s open to new ideas...next year’s defense will be able to handle whatever Manziel/Watson style QB they face.
Somebody hire our coach...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.