College Football rankings
Trying to figure out where a college football team's end of regular season ranking will be in comparison with all other teams is difficult at best. But doing it in June, before fall practice? The only thing more dangerous for preseason predictions than that would be if they were done even earlier--say in March, April or May. Several, some more well known than others, had their published preseason predictions partially destroyed because no one foresaw the terrible news coming out of Baylor.
As the revelations keep pouring out of Waco, it appears there will be enough information to write a whole book -- and that's not the Football stuff, either.
Staying on the topic of football here, several publications ranked Baylor a top five to top ten program before the news broke.
Baylor is still loaded with high quality athletes. The coaching staff, other than Art Briles apparently will stay the same. Also, new head coach Jim Grobe is a high quality individual and an excellent football coach. He will get as much out of the team this year as anyone can. Still, a football team can't just hit the reset after something so devastating rocks it's core. Though there is still a chance they will finish the year ranked, top five likely isn't in the cards for the Baylor Bears this season.
Anyone can create a top 20 list -- with a decent degree of accuracy -- simply by slapping the title on the previous season's final list.
In fact, that is often the starting point of creating a preseason list. Then, adjustments are made based on graduation losses, rising talent, coaching -- and coaching changes -- along with howthe team did in bowl season.
All of those items were considered in the following top 20 list. However, for this ranking I also researched the team's upcoming schedule.
I looked at who they were scheduled to play both in and out of conference, along with where and how the individual rivalries had been playing out recently. This addition information made for some significant moves -- higher and lower -- of many teams on the list.
In the end, its just another preseason ranking. I'll hit on many and miss on some.
Overall, I'm still confident it will be more accurate than most. Simply because it has more work invested in it than most.
Top 20 list:
1) Florida State 11) TCU
2) Alabama 12) Georgia
3) Ohio State 13) Michigan State
4) Clemson 14) Houston
5) Tennessee 15) Washington
6) LSU 16) Ole Miss
7) Oklahoma 17) Iowa
8) Michigan 18) North Carolina
9) Stanford 19) Arkansas
10) Notre Dame 20) Baylor
