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TheFlyingBoat Ballot for 2016 Preseason

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Aug. 29, 2016, 9:51 p.m.

Overall Rationale: 1-5:Alabama is a dominant team with depth that could start on a lot of teams. Alabama certainly has a tough schedule, probably one of the toughest in the league, and could stumble, but for now they are the team to beat. I expect Calvin Ridley and Minkah Fitzpatrick to be All-Americans skill position players and Robinson and Allen on the All-American lines when all is said and done. Alabama's defensive style combined with their punter JK Scott will give them unparalleled field position control, which will allow them to keep points off the board and give their offense an easier set of circumstances to work with as they try to break in a true freshman QB. With any other team I'd be skeptical, but Alabama seems to know how to make them work.Clemson has Deshaun Watson, the best QB in the game right now and Heisman frontrunner. Expect Clemson's powerful offense to rout most of their opponents. While Clemson's offense gets a lot of hype, don't undersell the Clemson defense, which is still a powerful force that will keep most of their schedule in check.Oklahoma. Can't say anything good about them, but here is sadly where they deserve. For now.Stanford has got to be the most underrated team in college football. Despite the potent triad of Rector, Love, and Heisman contender McCaffrey almost guaranteeing an easy transition for the new QB, especially considering the high quality of Stanford's line game many pundits and sportswriters seem to view Stanford as a low top 10 team instead of the playoff-caliber team they are. Stanford's defense is also potent, and their hire of Duane Akina a few years ago is likely to provide strong results this year in their DB game.Florida St returns a ton of talent and is going to be an incredibly scary team to deal with as Dalvin Cook enters his junior year and Derwin James enters his sophomore year. Roderick Johnson anchors what is sure to be a truly formidable OL that will open up a lot of pathways for Cook to exploit in his quest for the Heisman and Florida State's quest for the playoffs. For now, they are still on the outside looking in, at least according to me.6-10:LSU returns a lot of talent and Leonard Fournette will likely be hungry to make amends for being rendered silent in a couple big losses. A former Heisman lock lost his almost assured trophy following LSU's capitulation in front of a superior Alabama side. This year could Les Miles' chance to finally break the stranglehold that Alabama has on the SEC. But he probably won't.Notre Dame is a difficult team to place. At their best they are an incredibly potent team with a great history behind them that makes people prone to overrate them. Attempts to correct this leaves you with egg on your face as they blow out a team you corrected your intuition to put as a favorite. When you don't attempt to correct for it you end up with egg in your face as they disappoint. Such is life while evaluating Notre Dame. Nevertheless, at the start of the season, before the injury bug hits, Notre Dame seems to have all the tools necessary to dominate their opposition. Their OL and DL will be capable of pushing around many, but not all of the teams they face, and they have some great players in skill positions. The loss of Jaylon could spell danger, while their QB conundrum could either end awfully or provide Kelly with options that will make him the envy of the CFB world.Michigan State is a another oft-underestimated team. While they do lose their top QB in Connor Cook, their dominating line play demonstrated in the Big 10 CG and vs Ohio St suggest to me that Michigan State won't be taking nearly as big of a step back as people think they will.TCU will be the best they've been in a while this year, with a powerful defense and even more powerful offense as Kenny Trill goes live with great skill players and a fantastic line to support him. The defense in classic Gary Patterson fashion will be stifling and he seems to have found some fantastic clothing magic in the Alamo Bowl. Expect this wonderful juju to continue on to this year as TCU takes down some of the giants of College Football.Ohio State sent a lot of players to the draft and will likely be a stronger team by the end of the year. For now, as they try to find their groove with mostly new players, #10 seems like a good place for them. Raekwon will still terrorize his opponents and Urban Meyer will find a way to make things work.11-21:Michigan will be a great team soon, but they aren't there yet. By the end of the year, winning the Big 10 is a reasonably likely possibility. However, right now they still aren't as good as Ohio St or Michigan St until they prove otherwise.Tennessee has the same story as Michigan. Kind of.Ole Miss will be a good, not great SEC team this year. Georgia will be going through some growing pains, but they could be a potent foe at the end of the season, and winning the East is a possibility, though Tennessee is probably the favorite.The Huskies are good, but I don't buy the hype as much as others do. Stanford is still the better team. I do think eclipse Oregon this year, and finally get a win in a dominating fashion to make up for the 12 years of losses in a row (if it's more feel free to correct me on the number Oregon fans)Houston is also way overrated. They don't have the talent to consistently compete with top P5 teams. They beat Florida St once, but they did that after going through a much easier road to get there. Oklahoma exposes them with ease (sadly) and to bed they will go. If they surprise me and do so in a methodical fashion, expect a big rise in rankings, and I'll eat my words.UCLA is a team I don't really have much to say about. Jim Mora will lead a decent, but not great UCLA team, and I think this year might be the USC passes them by and retakes LA.Iowa is overrated like all hell because of one good year they have every now and again. They'll go back to being a decent team but not great team this year with 7-9 wins.North Carolina is an alright team in a weak division that will rack up some seemingly impressive wins, that aren't honestly that impressive. They are still an alright team, but they aren't top-15, at least not yet.Oregon falters as they try to find their diction without Kelly and Mariota22-25These are where I make my dark horse conference contender picksThe Utes have powerful lines and if you could tell anything by my previous comments, I think games are won and lost in the trenches. Utah has a schedule conducive to their surprise run and Kyle Wittingham is a defensive mastermind. Expect the rise of Utah we missed last year to happen this year.The Trojans have a chance to throw off the after effects of sanctions and rise back to the position a blue blood rightly deserves: on top of their conference. It remains to be seen if Clay Helton can be that guy. I am not sure if he is, but we'll see.Nebraska will be great this year and no one can convince me otherwise. The Huskers lost fluky games last year that will be wins this year. They will win the Big 10 East and dominate the weak competition they have there.Perhaps I'm a homer, but I think this is the year you begin to see things click at Texas. Texas will likely lose to ND, OU, TCU, and possibly one other and win all other games for 8/9 wins and 3/4 losses. Shane Buechele will find his place as a QB in his true freshman year over time and the rest of the team will mature over the year into a truly potent force.On an interesting note, the next few years seems to the years the Blue Bloods return with a vengeance. Alabama, OU, ND, and Ohio State are already dominant teams right now. Michigan is almost there. USC, Nebraska, and Texas are all on the upswing. Get ready for a lot of marquee bowl games and OOC games to look really good and the networks to make a lot of money.

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