Top 25 college football
Recently, the AP Top 25 was released for the upcoming 2006 college football season. There were a few surprises, but overall it was solid. The rankings, which we’ll go over in a moment, will likely change after the first week. Two of the great teams in this ranking, Ohio State and Texas, will meet in the second week of September 9. Last year’s meeting between these two teams was monumental and perhaps decided the national championship. If Texas had lost that game, most of the country would not be so familiar with Vince Young.
Still, the 2006 NFL Draft drew a lot out of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Are they really the number one team? What about Notre Dame? Time to get on the train? Will they bring back the past glory days? Here are the top 25 current APs for college football.
1. State of Ohio
2. Notre Dame
3. Texas
4. Auburn
5. West Virginia
6. USC
7. Florida
8. LSU
9. California
10. Oklahoma
11. State of Florida
12. Miami
13. Louisville
14. Michigan
15. Georgia
16. Iowa
17. Virginia Tech
18. Clemson
19. Penn State
20. Nebraska
21. Oregon
22. TCU
23. Tennessee
24. State of Arizona
25. Texas Technology
My only complaint is that Miami is on a lower list than the state of Florida. Miami is clearly the best team. Once the season begins, this will be one of the places on the list that will change. Also, I’m not that high on Texas. They are generating a lot of excitement from last season, including the excitement in the voting. They lost the field general in Vince Young and that’s going to hurt. We’ll find out how real they are in week two when the Ohio State Buckeyes hit town.
Why is USC in sixth place? They lost key players and the replacements are largely unproven. Again, this is preseason respect since they entered the championship game last season. USC’s first test comes in its second game on Sept. 16 against Nebraska. That’s a home game for USC. USC averaged 49.1 points per game last season, but that’s going to go down.
The preseason Top 25 is basically a bunch of guesswork using last year’s performances as a guide. There is a good chance that 80% of these teams will move after their first few games. Some won’t even be in the Top 25 in the second week. College football will be exciting from the start. It is very possible that we end with Notre Dame vs. Ohio State Championship Game.
