Each week during college football season, I will post two thing: My power rankings based on how good the team is (partially based on wins and losses) and my 3*+ Plays.
This is my preseason power rankings. Please note that I have teams projected to go 7-5 on the list ahead of 9-3 teams. When I make my projections, I account for the chance of upsets, schedule strength, trends, etc. My power rankings are based on how good the team is.
Thank you and enjoy!Preseason Power Ratings
| Rank | School | 2004 Record | Projected Record | Comments |
| 1 |  |
13-0 | 13-0 | USC should be #1-#10 until proven otherwise. 14 starters return, including both WRS, both HBs, and also the guy who won the Heisman. |
| 2 |  |
10-3 | 11-2 | Regardless of the questions surrounding Marcus Vick, this team is great. The defense returns 5 starters, but will still be dominant. The offense has a great line and two quality backs. The only problem is the brutal schedule, which includes trips to West Virginia, N.C. State, Maryland, and Virginia. |
| 3 |  |
9-3 | 11-2 | Say what you want about the SEC East being the best conference in football because LSU trumps them all. The entire offense returns, as does 7/11 of the defense. And the team wasn’t too shabby last year. |
| 4 |  |
11-1 | 10-1 | The Big East sucks. Louisville does not. 13 starters return to lead Loo’vlle to the National Title Game. They may have lost LeFors, but they still have a team just as great as the one that nearly knocked off Miami in the Orange Bowl on a weeknight for the first time since 1984. |
| 5 |  |
12-1 | 10-3 | When the Sooners lose someone, they quickly replace him. Gone: Jason White. In: Rhett Bomar. The defense is still suspect, and the secondary will cost them the game against Texas. But they still are good enough. |
| 6 |  |
11-1 | 9-3 | On paper, this team should be a contender for the National Title. And since Power Rankings are on paper, I’m putting them 6. They will be in the second ten come season’s end. |
| 7 |  |
9-3 | 10-2 | Don’t look now, but Larry Coker enters his fifth season with a heat pack on his seat. Luckily, the team is too good to continue the loss trend of 0-1-2-3. |
| 8 |  |
10-3 | 10-2 | Fulmer showed why he was the second best coach in the SEC last year by leading his team to the SEC title with a third string QB. Ainge is healed, but there is no one for him to throw to. The defense will carry this team, and Gerald Riggs. |
| 9 |  |
9-3 | 12-1 | Boise. Boise. Boise. Not this year. Fresno fell apart for 3 games last year, including the Boise game. Otherwise, they’d have run the table. Everyone returns and Boise comes to town. T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Did I mention that Fresno actually is talented? |
| 10 |  |
7-5 | 10-3 | Half the offense is gone, but Chris Leak and his protection return. The defense returns; hopefully it does better than last year. |
| 11 |  |
6-6 | 9-3 | Take a talented senior QB and mix him in with a solid receiving corps, and throw in an improved defense, and you got yourself this season’s surprise team. |
| 12 |  |
10-2 | 8-4 | How does a team that returns 10 starters (4 on defense) gain so much recognition? If Drew Tate goes down, this team won’t even make it to a bowl game. |
| 13 |  |
7-5 | 9-3 | The third and final Big XII team to crack the Power 25. 16 starters return, including 9 on offense, from a team that should have beaten OU and somehow lost to Baylor. They’ll be pretty darn good this year. |
| 14 |  |
10-2 | 9-3 | Shockley finally gets his chance to lead Georgia. However, he is inconsistent. Expect the defense to carry Richt’s team this year. |
| 15 |  |
9-3 | 9-3 | Let’s compare Michigan to Ohio State. Chad Henne is better and has more experience than either OSU QB. Mike Hart is the second best back in the country. Avant is a solid WR, though Ted Ginn is better. The OSU defense is slightly better. Michigan is a much more complete football team than OSU. |
| 16 |  |
7-5 | 9-3 | Utah. Utah. Utah. Not so fast my friends. Wyoming returns 17 starters, a great coaching staff, and the highest elevated stadium in all of D-1. Oh, they also have dark horse Heisman candidate Jovon Bouknight (#8 in my WR rankings) catching balls from Casey Bramlet. They are not going to upset Ole Miss. They’ll be the favorites. |
| 17 |  |
13-0 | 9-3 | Auburn ran the table in the same year that USC, Oklahoma, Utah, and Boise State did. With major losses at the skill positions, don’t expect Auburn to repeat. Heavy losses also hurt a defense that surrendered more than 14 points only twice. |
| 18 |  |
8-4 | 7-5 | See Michigan comments for details as to why Ohio State is overrated. Add in that Tressel is a mediocre coach with no control over the program and you get disaster waiting to happen. |
| 19 |  |
4-7 | 8-4 | 18 starters return, including 10 from an inconsistent offense. The defense was the weakness last year, but they starters 5 underclassmen. With a more experienced team top to bottom and Sonny Lubick as coach, expect much improvement. And I mean much. |
| 20 |  |
5-6 | 9-3 | 13 starters return to a team that easily could have won 9 games. Jay Davis has a year under his belt and should be able to right the ship. | 21 |  |
9-3 | 7-5 | This team is not that good. Other than at RB and C, the offense is weak and inexperienced. The defense only returns five starters. Honestly, I only have this team in the Top 25 to save face. After they lose at home to Miami, they are dropping to #40 as they belong. |
| 22 |  |
9-3 | 12-1 | Omar Jacobs is only a junior. If he returns next season, Bowling Green will be a top ten team. He threw for more than 4000 yards and 40 TDs. And he will more than duplicate that this year. I’m interested to see how the defense fares. Last year it was great until the final three games. |
| 23 |  |
11-1 | 10-3 | The team is not as good as last year, but close. I picked them to run the table and I got lucky. I overrated them last year based solely on offense. The defense surrendered 49 points to San Jose State in a 9 AM kickoff. SJSU failed to come close to that against any other quality opposition. |
| 24 |  |
7-5 | 9-4 | The Cyclones return 15 starters, including HB Stevie Hicks, the latest in a list of 1000 yard rushers to go through ISU under McCarney. I am also impressed with the defense, which returns 8 starters from last year when it showed great improvement down the stretch. ISU is the class of the North division. |
| 25 |  |
4-7 | 9-4 | 10 starters return on offense from a team that was 7 plays from going 10-1 and winning the ACC, including the 6th best HB in the nation, Chris Barclay. The defense is improved, and it was pretty good 9/11 games last year. This team will win the Atlantic Division. |
Conference Power Rankings
| Rank | Conference | 2004 W-L (Bowl W-L) | 2005 Proj. W-L (Bowl W-L) | Comments |
| 1 |  |
24-14 (3-3) | 27-10 (6-2) | Take away Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, and Alabama, you still have a conference that is better than the Big East. Add them, you have the best conference by far. South Carolina and Arkansas, the fourth best teams in their respective divisions, have the conferences two best coaches. Ole Miss and MSU are rebuilding, but they will be more competitive than people think. |
| 2 |  |
21-12 (3-3) | 30-10 (5-2) | On a team-to-team comparison, the SEC rains supreme. Florida, Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia are better than Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and N.C. State. Duke and UNC are worse than Vanderbilt and Kentucky. The only thing the ACC has going for itself is that it has more competitive teams (10) than the SEC (8). The Atlantic Division is average with four teams that did not go bowling last year. |
| 3 |  |
25-14 (3-3) | 25-14 (1-6) | A very overrated conference. Illinois and Indiana are terrible. Northwestern is almost terrible. Wisconsin, Michigan State, Penn State, and Minnesota are very average teams. Ohio State is overrated. Michigan, Iowa, and Purdue are good, but not great. The Big Ten is always overrated. Wisconsin starting 9-0 last year is a testimate to that. |
| 4 |  |
28-11 (4-3) | 26-10 (4-4) | How does this conference always rank #1 or #2? That question is even more magnified this year, even though sporting news finally realized their faults and ranked it #3, ahead of the SEC. When one division (North) has four teams with losing marks and the other two have five or six losses, something is wrong. Add Baylor to that mix, and you got a very overrated conference. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State are very mediocre football teams, and A&M got crushed by a Tennessee team with a third string QB. Sure, the conference is better than last year, but that is not saying much. It still is just #3. |
| 5 |  |
22-13 (3-2) | 18-13 (3-3) | USC is the best team in college football. Arizona, Stanford, and Washington are three of the worst teams in college football. Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington State are very mediocre, maybe average. Arizona State and California are both not as good as last year. UCLA is highly underrated. They have an outside shot to win this conference and maybe even run the table. |
| 6 |  |
14-17 (2-1) | 18-13 (2-2) | Utah won’t be nearly as good as it was last year, but they are still a Top 25-caliber team. Wyoming will be much better than the 7-5 team that upset UCLA last December in Vegas. CSU returns 18 starters from a down season. TCU joins the conference. New Mexico, Air Force, and BYU lose a lot of starters but will be competitive. SDSU and UNLV are just as good as South Florida and Cincinnati. Don’t tell me the Big East is better than the Mountain West. |
| 7 |  |
19-15 (2-3) | 13-17 (0-4) | Louisville is great and West Virginia and Pitt are good teams. Syracuse loses most of its offense from an overachieving 6-6 team. Connecticut is a losing team without Orlovsky. Rutgers sadly will win 6 games and get a bowl invitation only because the Big East has one to spare. Cinci and USF are terrible. As I already said, don’t tell me this conference is better than the Mountain West. |
| 8 | Independents | 20-18 (1-1) | 21-23 (0-1) | Navy won’t be as good as last year, but they’ll still be bowl eligible. Army may return only 9 starters, but they return everyone at the skill positions. Throw in Bobby Ross and Baylor, Central Michigan, Akron, UMass, and Arkansas State, you have a team that can if it pulls an upset be bowl eligible. Notre Dame is unpredictable because it is Notre Dame and it has a new coach. Temple will be atrocious. |
| 9 |  |
14-18 (3-2) | 11-23 (3-2) | A very mediocre football conference. ECU and UCF will be cellar dwellers in the East. Marshall returns only five starters, and only the two tackles on offense. No wonder Pruett retired! Rice, SMU, and Tulsa are nothing additions. Tulane will be the worst team that goes bowling this year in the country, bar Rutgers. UTEP, Houston, and Southern Miss are actually good football teams. |
| 10 |  |
15-19 (2-2) | 8-23 (2-1) | Minus Boise and Fresno, this conference is nothing. Fresno will run the table, except for a loss in November at USC. For the third time in five years, I have predicted Idaho to go winless. Sadly, it is not a stretch. USU, SJSU, and NMSU are almost as bad. SJSU lost coach Dr. Fitz Hill because he felt the program was going nowhere so he resigned to become a professor at UCF! Nevada, La Tech, and Hawai’i are very mediocre. |
| 11 |  |
5-36 (2-3) | 9-25 (1-1) | Bowling Green is a very good football team. Miami (OH), Northern Illinois, and Toledo are average football teams. All the directional Michigans (Eastern, Central, and Western), Ball and Kent State, Akron, Ohio, and Buffalo are lousy. Need I say more? |
| 12 |  |
8-29 (0-2) | 2-27 (1-0) | FIU and FAU are two of the three worst teams in the country, save Idaho. UL-M and Arkansas State are two more of the worst teams in the country. The other half of the conference isn’t much better. MTSU, UL-L, and Troy State were all hit hard by graduation on the defensive side of the ball. North Texas will sadly win the conference again. Troy State will upset UAB September 10 to keep this conference from going winless against 1-A opponents during the regular season. |
* Wins against 1-AA opponents do not count. Losses against 1-AA opponents DO count. All records are interconference. 2004 records based on teams that were in the conference in 2004. For example, Boston College counts as Big East and Tulsa counts as WAC.
14 replies on “Preseason Power Rankings”
Um…. I’m having trouble formatting it so that there are not such big gaps. Any idea of what I can do?
i’ll take a look at it I think the problem is that the table is too wide so it pushes it below the ad.
But what about the conference rankings? I thought what you said, but the conference rankings did the same thing. That is what really puzzled me.
it’s the < b r > tags when you put in a table, you have to select HTML FORMATTED, otherwise, it’ll put a "<br>" tag between lines. So they all get interpreted at once and gives you that huge space.
Quick question.. About your Michigan comment….You said Mike Hart was the 2nd best running back. Who is number 1? Bush? Peterson? Somebody else? Just curious…
Reggie Bush Reggie Bush is #1. Check IUfan62’s article for my top 5. I rank 25 QBs, WRs, RBs, and 10 at each other position. I’m only willing to show the top 5 at each position. The others I keep for when I make my team. I also rank total defense, total offense, and coaches. It just helps me to quickly find great lines for my 3+* plays.
A few things… As you correct grammar I will correct content. Just kidding bsd, here are a few problems I had:
1.) Coker recently got a contract extension, so i don’t think he is on too much of a hot seat in Miami.
2.) UCLA??? They may be a surprise team, but as far as power rankings go, there is nooooo way you could put them above Iowa AND Michigan. Also, Wyoming above anyone in the top 25 is just ludicrous. These are power rankings, not where you think they will finish at the end of the year.
3.) I understand how you can say Cal might not be as good as last year, but ASU? They return 9/11 starters on an offense that averages 35 pts a game. Oh and they have All-American Candidates in WR Derek Hagan and Tight End Zach Miller. Look it up, Hagan is on several preseason all-america teams including SI and Blue ribbon. They also return 7 starters on defense.
Overall I liked the article, but again power rankings are not supposed to be where you think teams will end up at the end of the year. For a preview this would work, but as far as power rankings go, this article is kind of far fetched.
hold on a tick Wyoming is a very good football team. It is a common pick to take them against Florida (-22.5).
And contract extentions have NOTHING to do with a coaches hot seat.
Zook received an extention and got fired after 1 year.
Holtz got an extention and got fired/forced to retire after 1 year.
Wannstadt got an extention and got fired/resigned during the following season.
An extention means absolutely nothing.
you are right I completely overlooked ASU. I must have been very tired when I was dealing with the PAC-10.
Yes and No I agree often times contract extensions mean very little. But they do mean something.
Looking over the Pac-10 is a given with sportswriters so I wouldn’t worry about it.
I’m usually very nice to the PAC-10 Last year, Cal was my #2 team up until the Bowl Game, after which Auburn jumped them and they became #3.
I usually overlook ASU because I’m always wrong when picking them. I figure I’m least wrong giving them 6-5. It’s a subconscious thing. I’m hoping to one year be somewhat right with ASU.
BSD Your as close to an idiot when it comes to college football as possible. Explain to me how OSU is over rated. Are you retarded. I wouldnt be surprised if OSU won a national championchip and how do you call Jim Tressel a bad Coach, hes won a national championchip you dumbass. Secondly Ohio State has two good wide recievers Tedd ginn and Santonio Holmes, who would both shit on Jason Avant. And to say that OSU’s Defense is slightly better, are you blind, they have the best linebackers in the country and a great secondary. The OSU defense will be one of the best in the country this year. Thirdly if you think Carr is a better coach than tressel your retarded. Carr doesnt even know how to stop Troy Smith, who in your refernace is not close to as good as Chad Henne. Who had fucking Braylon Edwards to make him look like god. You cant tell me without Braylon Edwards they would have won the MSU vs. UofM Game or even came close in the Rose Bowl. Your an idiot for putting Ohio State 18th in your power rankings and i cant wait until you look like a retard half way into the season
oh and great pick with Oklahoma… they look really sweet this year…
Maybe your a good writer, but you know little about sports
MSU played a great game That was all that happened. Braylon Edwards won that game for Michigan, yes. But MSU played a hell of a game and should have prevailed in overtime.
Kinda like how UNC beat Miami.