The 2019 preseason Coaches Poll was just released and this group of pollsters have the Hokies ranked 32 in the "Others Receiving Votes" section. I wasn't expecting that. Apparently some people out there think we are going to turn it around this year.
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Ohhh my first true love, Topanga.
I wanna banga Topanga.
I mean given that preseason positioning, if we can get through Miami, that game against ND could be a Top 15 matchup. Not that it should be
Coastal: Miami 94 votes, VT 64 votes, lolUVA 30 votes, Duke 10 votes
Lol UVA picked to win the Coastal, yet less votes in the Coaches Poll than VT
Receiving votes should be our absolute basement for preseason polls. We would have to have a record breaking let bad year to not be a top 35 team. There just aren't that many decent teams in college football. I mean, how many P5 conferences go 5 deep for quality teams? And even if they did, it still leaves 10 G5 or other teams to round out the top 35.
the fact that we just had the worst season in decades and are still receiving votes in top-35 says a lot
I've seen multiple posts from various folks/sites recently that show us higher than UVA in the 20's, which I wasn't expecting. Based on last year and current known factors, I was thinking that UVA would definitely be higher than us. Also wasn't thinking we would be in the 20's.
Top 25 by conference:
B1G - 7 (5, 7, 14, 17, 19, 20, 25)
SEC - 6 (2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 16)
PAC 16 - 5 (12, 13, 15, 21, 23)
Big 12 - 3 (4, 10, 24)
ACC - 2 (1, 22)
AAC - 1 (17)
Independent - 1 (9)
(Wisky and UCF are tied at 17 or 18, fyi)
No surprise with the B1G - they always start the season over-hyped. Let's hope the numbers are flipped (ACC v B1G) by the end of the season.
Also, it's my firm belief that everyone outside the top 15 is a coin toss by the voters and you're more likely to be there due to name recognition than actual team quality. Or E$PN just wants you to be ranked for an opening night match-up. And, yes, we have benefited from this in the past.
When I first saw us at 32 I was a bit surprised, but honestly that's about right. Despite how last year felt, we weren't truly awful (I mean, we didn't win only 3 or 4 games), and we will have way more experience this year.
Hopefully we'll finish higher than 32nd this season, but FWIW last year's 32nd ranked teams in the final AP (Iowa State) and coaches' poll (Oregon) both finished 8-4 in the regular season.