SJS College Football Extravaganza
SJS 114     published July 30, 2000

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SJS 115 Preseason Rankings

With the season only a month away, I have produced, for the third straight year, preseason rankings of all 115 teams. Conference previews will appear soon, and on those pages I will detail more the rationale behind the rankings.

There are several ways one might go about ranking the teams. One, trying to forecast the final postseason rankings of the BCS; two, putting teams in order of their relative strength; or three, going to the ridiculous trouble of picking every single game of every single team and then ranking them based on their predicted records. I have, of course, done the latter.

1 Florida State Seminoles 2 Nebraska Cornhuskers 3 Florida Gators 4 Michigan Wolverines 5 Alabama Crimson Tide 6 Wisconsin Badgers 7 Texas Longhorns 8 Clemson Tigers 9 Kansas State Wildcats 10 Miami Hurricanes 11 Oklahoma Sooners 12 Georgia Bulldogs 13 Virginia Tech Hokies 14 Washington Huskies 15 Southern Miss Golden Eagles 16 Michigan State Spartans 17 Penn State Nittany Lions 18 Tennessee Volunteers 19 Purdue Boilermakers 20 Oregon Ducks 21 Boston College Eagles 22 Texas Christian Horned Frogs 23 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 24 Brigham Young Cougars 25 Minnesota Gophers 26 Illinois Illini 27 Arizona Wildcats 28 Texas Tech Red Raiders 29 Southern Cal Trojans 30 Louisiana State Tigers 31 Vanderbilt Commodores 32 Colorado State Rams 33 Georgia Tech Yellowjackets 34 Utah Utes 35 Maryland Terrapins 36 Mississippi Rebels 37 UCLA Bruins 38 Auburn Tigers 39 Texas A&M Aggies 40 Arkansas Razorbacks 41 Colorado Buffaloes 42 Arizona State Sun Devils 43 Southern Methodist Mustangs 44 Pittsburgh Panthers 45 Ohio State Buckeyes 46 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 47 Virginia Cavaliers 48 Syracuse Orangemen 49 East Carolina Pirates 50 North Carolina Tar Heels 51 Indiana Hoosiers 52 Mississippi State Bulldogs 53 Wyoming Cowboys 54 Fresno State Bulldogs 55 Akron Zips 56 Air Force Falcons 57 Memphis Tigers 58 Stanford Cardinal 59 Kentucky Wildcats 60 Oklahoma State Cowboys 61 Kansas Jayhawks 62 North Carolina State Wolfpack 63 Iowa State Cyclones 64 Louisville Cardinals 65 Oregon State Beavers 66 Houston Cougars 67 UNLV Running Rebels 68 Rice Owls 69 California Golden Bears 70 South Carolina Gamecocks 71 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 72 Wake Forest Demon Deacons 73 New Mexico State Aggies 74 Cincinatti Bearcats 75 Northern Illinois Huskies 76 Marshall Thundering Herd 77 Toledo Rockets 78 Missouri Tigers 79 Temple Owls 80 Ohio Bobcats 81 Central Florida Golden Knights 82 Boise State Broncos 83 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs 84 Western Michigan Broncos 85 Louisiana-Monroe Indians 86 Miami Red Hawks 87 Idaho Vandals 88 Duke Blue Devils 89 West Virginia Mountaineers 90 Iowa Hawkeyes 91 New Mexico Lobos 92 San Jose State Spartans 93 Texas El Paso Miners 94 Baylor Bears 95 Washington State Cougars 96 Northwestern Wildcats 97 San Diego State Aztecs 98 Tulsa Golden Hurricane 99 Central Michigan Chippewas 100 North Texas Eagles 101 Navy Midshipmen 102 UAB Blazers 103 Army Cadets 104 Utah State Aggies 105 Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders 106 Louisiana-Lafayette Raging Cajuns 107 Tulane Green Wave 108 Kent Golden Flashes 109 Nevada Wolfpack 110 Eastern Michigan Eagles 111 Bowling Green Falcons 112 Connecticut Huskies 113 Ball State Cardinals 114 Buffalo Bulls 115 Arkansas State Indians

BOWL PREDICTIONS Orange Bowl Florida State over Nebraska Rose Bowl Washington over Michigan Sugar Bowl Miami over Florida Fiesta Bowl Alabama over Texas NEW WHIPPING BOY This season, a new team joins Division 1A: the Connecticut Huskies. UConn will play as an independent for a few seasons, but are building a 40,000 seat stadium to jockey for admission into the Big East, where they are a basketball member. The conference affiliation should improve the talent situation at UConn, which was a mediocre Division I-AA team at best. If the talent situation does not improve, the Big East, now split into the haves (Miami, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, and either West Virginia or Boston College) and the have nots (BC or WV, Temple, Pitt, and Rutgers) will gain another have not bottom feeder. This is a good expansion move, when Miami constantly flirts with the ACC and Syracuse with the Big Ten? As for this season, I'm bucking the trend and saying that UConn will win some games with some old I-AA foes to go along with Buffalo on their schedule. OUT OF STEP? I'm a little out of step taking Florida State number one; most pubs have Nebraska one, FSU two. So I'm not as goofy as last year's Arizona pick. But some other out of step picks to keep an eye on: Florida #3, Clemson #8, Oklahoma #11, Boston College #21, Minnesota #25 (wishful thinking?), and Southern Cal (as low as) #29. I can't say I'm all that confident in these choices, but the ball could easily bounce that way. CHAMPIONS SEC Florida over Alabama Big Twelve Nebraska over Oklahoma MAC Akron over Northern Illinois BEST CONFERENCES Here's how the conferences rank in terms of strength: Big Twelve Big Ten SEC Pac Ten ACC Big East Mountain West WAC Conference USA Big West MAC WOO-HOO and BOO-HOO Unlike last year, where I forecast three undefeated teams, I see only one team going the distance: Florida State. The Seminoles have a terribly easy conference slate this year, and have Florida at home. The Gators haven't won in Doak Campbell Stadium since 1986, managing a tie in 1994. The toughest test, then, will be Miami on the road. The nod goes to FSU, with the more experienced quarterback, a favorable match up (Miami's strong ground game against FSU's even stronger rush defense), and the greater depth. Look for deja vu with the Hurricanes fading in the fourth quarter. As for Boo-hoo, I have no one going without a win this year. Charitably, I found wins for Northwestern and Buffalo, the two schools most likely to compete for the prized doughnut. Navy has a shot too, as does Baylor and Arkansas State. BCS Mess My scheme of events presents my dear Florida State friends the potential for the Nightmare Scenario, Round 2. That is, if Florida loses the FSU game in November, then wins the SEC championship against what would be a top 3 Alabama team, then there is a good chance the BCS vote might call for a Florida-Florida State rematch in the Orange Bowl. That happened in 1996, and it resulted in a Gator national title and Florida State's most humiliating loss of the decade. I'm predicting that the vote comes out for one-loss Nebraska by the narrowest of margins, but if a survey of other preseason predictions is any guide, FSU may have more to fear from consensus preseason #1 Nebraska than Florida. In fact, I have Big Ten champion Michigan also emerging with one loss. If so, it could create our first BCS crisis. Expect inertia to carry the day, with pollsters sticking to their preseason biases and voting FSU and Nebraska one and two at season's end. That, coupled with the Cornhusker's strong schedule, should produce the predicted Orange Bowl match up.