FanPost

Preseason Top 25 For Next Season

Rivals.com's Bob McClellan released the Rivals Preseason Top 25:

  1. USC
  2. Michigan
  3. LSU
  4. West Virginia
  5. Florida
  6. Ohio State
  7. Virginia Tech
  8. Oklahoma
  9. Texas
  10. Wisconsin
  11. Louisville
  12. Georgia
  13. Nebraska
  14. Auburn
  15. California
  16. Arkansas
  17. Tennessee
  18. Penn State
  19. Rutgers
  20. Florida State
  21. Texas A&M
  22. Notre Dame
  23. Hawaii
  24. Boston College
  25. Clemson
Others receiving votes:
Wake Forest, UCLA, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Maryland, South Florida, South Carolina, Oregon, Alabama, Miami (FL), TCU, Boise State, Missouri

NationalChamps.net also had their annual "Early Bird" Top 25, which is released around Thanksgiving day.

Their poll looked like this:

  1. USC
  2. Michigan
  3. Ohio State
  4. LSU
  5. Oklahoma
  6. Florida
  7. West Virginia
  8. Louisville
  9. Virginia Tech
  10. Texas
  11. Arkansas
  12. Wisconsin
  13. Nebraska
  14. Tennessee
  15. UCLA
  16. Auburn
  17. Wake Forest
  18. Texas A&M
  19. California
  20. Boston College
  21. Notre Dame
  22. South Carolina
  23. Georgia
  24. Penn State
  25. South Florida
Others Receiving votes:
Arizona State, Boise State, BYU, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Miami (FL), Oregon State, Rutgers, TCU

As a whole I agree with the Rivals rankings more.  I think OK and Ohio St are going to definitely drop down a bit next season.  
Ranking UCLA at #15 is far too high for me.  I would have them in the #23-25 range or off the list completely.  This does gives a good idea of where UCLA is in regards to the national media.  UCLA is expected to finish the season a ranked team and for some it should finish in the top half of the poll.  That one ESPN article even suggested UCLA as a darkhorse national championship contender, which I think is really pushing it.  The offense is going to need to show a lot of improvement to meet any lofty expectations like that.  The defense has some issues, but I think another year in Coach Walker's system is going to make a big difference.  The defense usually was a problem when they stopped being aggressive and would play a more prevent style of defense, which did not work at all.  Hopefully Coach Walker can learn from those mistakes.  We know Coach Dorrell does not seem to.  If Karl Dorrell does end up being the coach/offensive coordinator then there are frankly no more excuses and UCLA has to produce.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

Trending Discussions