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hokies220 Ballot for 2016 Preseason

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Aug. 21, 2016, 3:46 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Preseason I stick close to the AP Poll. As the season goes on I may give teams large jumps and drops my poll is usually very fluid and I try to not let quality losses edge out wins for rankings.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide No reason to not have a Saban coached Alabama team as preseason #1.
2 Clemson Tigers Nor is there much of a reason to not have Clemson at #2 heading into the season.
3 Oklahoma Sooners As of right now they've gotta be the favorites to win the Big 12 although with a couple of huge tests in the first few weeks of the season we should know more shortly.
4 Florida State Seminoles A very solid team that should have a nasty defense and Cook tearing up opposing defenses. Three big tests in the first five games. Plus USF could be good this year. 
5 Ohio State Buckeyes I have OSU slightly higher than the AP poll because I have faith in Meyer to have another incredible season. The B1G is three horse race (on paper) and we should know more about this year's Buckeyes after the OU game.
6 LSU Tigers I'm not certain how LSU's passing game will be this year, but with LF7 and Guice expecting a bigger share of the running this year I'm not too concerned about it yet. Especially returning so many starters.
7 Stanford Cardinal We all know how good McCaffrey is, but who will replace Kevin Hogan along with a plethora of other starters? Tempted to have them a little lower, but I trust Shaw to have another solid team put together. Could lose to a purple Wildcat team in the opener two years running though.
8 Tennessee Volunteers HYPE TRAIN and all that, but Tennessee was damn impressive last year in the bowl win against Northwestern. Close losses to two playoff teams and Florida and returning a lot of starters make it sensible to have them preseason top 10.
9 Michigan Wolverines Harbaugh surprised me last year by having success immediately with a ten win season and the Wolverines were in control of their own destiny in the B1G until that one little mistake. But as much as we all like to bring that up I still expect the Wolverines defense to be lights out and even just a serviceable QB should net 9+ wins again. They should remain relatively unchallenged until the MSU game. Not starting off 7-0 should be seen as a failure. Only partially because only one game out those seven isn't in the Big House.
10 TCU Horned Frogs They get Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State at home this year. Those games, with the exception of Arkansas, are a long ways away though. I've learned to not underestimate TCU and Patterson though.
11 Houston Cougars A full recruitment year under Herman now and they won't be surprising anyone this year. Everyone knows going into the year that Houston is the G5 favorite and with OU and Louisville on the schedule there's even a super slight chance they could be in the playoff conversation. But first things first is the huge week one match-up against OU.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame's biggest weakness last year was injuries. Yet they still managed to play Clemson down to the wire as well as Stanford. But they also nearly lost to Virginia and got handled fairly easily by Ohio State. This year the schedule appears tougher and another up and down play style could bode ill for the Irish. They don't return a lot of starters, but Notre Dame reloads pretty well. I think #12 is ok for right now.
13 Michigan State Spartans So many players to replace including Cook, Calhoun, and Burbidge. Not sure what to expect from the offense, but they do get Michigan and Ohio State at home. They have what amounts to a warm-up game against Furman before a long break then going to play @ Notre Dame.
14 Ole Miss Rebels They return the least amount of starters in the SEC and play FSU right out of the gate. Then a short week and a gimme game against Wofford then Alabama and Georgia. The Rebels have a brutal schedule and although I'm expecting a downturn this year if they beat FSU to start then they could really be dangerous. They're very much a toss-up team to me with potential either way right now.
15 Oregon Ducks I feel as though nobody is talking about the Ducks this year. Helfrich might not be as good as Kelly was and the team seemed to fall apart without a good QB last year, but they still won 9 games. The Pac-12 North comes down to Stanford and Oregon until proven otherwise. Even without as many returning starters and big what-if? at QB I have more faith in Oregon than Washington/Wazzu.
16 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa went 12-0 last year and won the B1G West. I know right? Sure, they came up short of MSU and got obliterated by Stanford, but they won 12 games. They've got a mostly easy schedule this year with Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Northwestern at home and could easily repeat as champs of the West Division.
17 Louisville Cardinals Louisville returns the most starters of any team in the country and should have an easy eight wins on the schedule. With a damn good QB returning and a good, if distasteful, coach Louisville could be a dark horse in the ACC. Or at least screw one of Clemson/FSU over.
18 Oklahoma State Cowboys No matter how you look at it the Pokes overachieved last year. The schedule appears to start off easy, but CMU and Pitt are sneaky good then immediately they play Baylor and Texas. If they can start 5-0 I think it's reasonable they could definitely be 10-0 heading into the TCU and OU games.
19 North Carolina Tar Heels I feel like most people, myself included, are already penciling in UNC for the ACC Championship Game. But the schedule is more difficult than last year with Georgia and FSU on it. They still play two FCS teams as well. This is Coastal Chaos though and simply because UNC is the favorite that alone should tell you they won't win the division. To me they're another team like Ole Miss with a lot of potential to go either way.
20 Georgia Bulldogs How well can Smart take over for Richt? Chubb should be ready to go and the defense can only improve ,right?
21 UCLA Bruins A team that lost several influential players from last year despite returning a good QB I have them lower than the AP. A week one win against TAMU could gain them some momentum though.
22 USC Trojans The opening game against Alabama looms large. They're definitely the underdogs and a win would be huge for USC.
23 Wisconsin Badgers Similar to USC. Probably not the favorites in their division and a huge game 1 coming up.
24 Florida Gators Should be 3-0 going to the game against Tennessee. They draw Arkansas and LSU crossover games and of course the rivalry game against FSU. Asking for ten wins again could be a bit much.
25 Washington Huskies Huge potential especially with Oregon and Stanford not being sure bets like usual, but this team won seven games last year and gets Stanford and Oregon back-to-back this year.

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