Well the preseason poll is out. No surprise with anOSU being ranked #1
Here's the full poll if you want to look at it. Any surprises for people?
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | POINTS | 1ST PLACE VOTES | PREV | CHANGE | HI/LOW |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State | 14-1 | 1598 | 62 | NR | 0 | – |
| 2 | TCU | 12-1 | 1487 | 1 | NR | 0 | – |
| 3 | Alabama | 12-2 | 1452 | 1 | NR | 0 | – |
| 4 | Baylor | 11-2 | 1365 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 5 | Oregon | 13-2 | 1260 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 6 | Michigan State | 11-2 | 1230 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 7 | Auburn | 8-5 | 1103 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 8 | Florida State | 13-1 | 1057 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 9 | Georgia | 10-3 | 1026 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 10 | USC | 9-4 | 1014 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 11 | Notre Dame | 8-5 | 883 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 12 | Clemson | 10-3 | 838 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 13 | LSU | 8-5 | 727 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 14 | UCLA | 10-3 | 697 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 15 | Ole Miss | 9-4 | 668 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 16 | Arizona State | 10-3 | 577 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 17 | Georgia Tech | 11-3 | 573 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 11-3 | 470 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 19 | Oklahoma | 8-5 | 407 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 20 | Arkansas | 7-6 | 377 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 21 | Stanford | 8-5 | 365 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 22 | Arizona | 10-4 | 299 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 23 | Missouri | 11-3 | 229 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 24 | Boise State | 12-2 | 190 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
| 25 | Tennessee | 7-6 | 166 | 0 | NR | 0 | – |
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Comments
Multiple 7-6 SEC teams in the preseason coaches poll, August really is right around the corner.
The only one I can defend is Arkansas because they played really well at the end of last year and lost some very close games to some pretty good teams.
I'd say Tennessee is pretty well deserved of it.
A new coach going in to his 3rd season has got his entire system known to the team now
Back to back Top 10 recruiting classes
That brings 31 4* and a 5* player now on the team
Talent wise, 20 of those were Top 5 at their position
It may all be hype, but there is lots to back it up besides last year's record
Of course there is also the 2016 game we open against them.
Science says Top 5 team year end
I would hope that there is plenty to back it up "besides last years record".
Because that was no so great.
Woah, woah, woah. Pump your brakes.
Tennessee has a lot to be excited about. They have a lot of talent and the metrics and polls alike believe in them quite a bit. I think they win 9 games. But top 5 by the end of the year? That's a bit much. That offensive line has to not be absolutely terrible first. 120th in sacks allowed per game, 125th in tfl allowed per game, 103rd in ypc, and 118th in adjusted sack rate paints an ugly picture. Throw in that the offense wasn't really great at anything even with Dobbs in (struggled some against Bama and was poor against Missouri and Vanderbilt) and there are too many real concerns about the Volunteers to say that they'll be top 5.
Would you say:
They back?
I'm not usually one to cry about SEC bias but this list is pretty absurd. 10 of the top 27? C'mon now
I think this is where the question of "are your preseason rankings where you project teams to finish, or where you believe they currently are?" comes into play.
I can see UT/Ark finishing in the top 25. I don't think they are the 20th and 25th best programs in the nation right now.
Exactly. Tennessee currently the 25th best team? Pardon me, but BULL $%&*ing $H!T!
Finish the year on fire with back to back top 5 classes and that's what you'll get. Favored in all but 1 game this year.
I've realized I'm getting mad at the wrong team. Auburn, LSU, and Notre Dame....what in the wide world of sports? Tennessee makes a pretty good case for 25 and I'll admit they should be higher than VT. My knee jerk reaction is to spit fire at Tennessee. My bad on this one.
Tennessee beat 1 P5 team with a winning record last year - that was 7-win Iowa. That's it. I agree that ya'll are headed in the right direction, but I hardly believe that warrants a top 25 preason ranking.
Played too many close games to not get notice though. 3 point game vs UGA in Athens. After we put in our QB against Bama we out scored them. It's all around the QB that we waited too long to put in. With him in last year we have 2-3 more wins, including one vs Oklahoma which well get this year.
Including Oklahoma? Really?
Absolutely. Already 3 point favorites. We're favored in 11 of 12 games, and just 9 point dogs to Bama. We've got the talent, coaching is the only unanswered. Learn the names of Derek Barrnett, Cam Sutton, Kahlil Mckenzie, Josh Dobbs, Marquez North, Alvin Kamara, and Jalen Hurd. They'll be household names by the end of the year.
I must have misread your comment. It looked as if you were saying that they would have beat Oklahoma last year if they had a different qb. That's what I was questioning.
Oh ok I gotcha. Not saying we would have won last year, but we would have certainly taken it to the wire. Our starting QB had zero legs. Combined with a terrible offensive line, he was a sitting duck. They were stubborn and tried to redshirt Dobbs (our current QB) but after Worley was hurt, they didn't have a choice.
My God. It starts. It was peaceful for so long....
That is all fine and good, but even you have to admit than voters don't do this for anyone who isn't in the SEC. For anyone else it is "win and be rewarded." For SEC teams they give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Eh, sometimes they do some teams they don't. The SEC is the best of the best. Yea they lost the title game last year but that was the first in almost in a decade. They give them the benefit of the doubt because they're always good. I recall some Tech teams getting way too much love in the past also.
The SEC lost the title game last year?
Hmmm...maybe it is true, these SEC homers are watching something other than what I see on my screen.
SEC fans still think that the season ends after the 14th game.
The first time they lost in a decade? And they made it to the title game? lol
As for best of the best, that is at least not something that can be fact checked, but a 2-5 record vs ranked teams in bowls isn't a good starting place
FTFY
I still don't understand the difference. What reason would you ever rank a team somewhere besides where you think they'll finish?
And that's the reason why these polls are useless until early October, at the earliest.
In My Opinion:
So, I think VT enters the year as a top 30-40 team. I think that due to our schedule, and the schedules of our opponents, we finish top 15-20.
F$U #8, Clemson #12, but Clemson is supposed to win the ACC...
Picked to win by the ACC media groups and not coaches from around the country who couldn't give a crap about a team they don't play.
Predicting where a team will finish the season and ranking a team based on current status are two different things.
So true.
last year's pre/post rankings
I didn't know 5.5 was a ranking. I also didn't know the delta of 9 and 5.5 = +5.5; but still falls in between +3 and +4. (ref. Michigan State).
Just nitpicking, but other than that, pretty cool chart. UV for the info.
I am surprised we weren't in the Top 25 in the attempt to boost interest in the game. Not that this sort of thing happens routinely or anything.
Remember this is voted on by the coaches. I wouldn't be surprised if the AP Poll had us in the top 25 in order to boost interest.
Look for the AP poll to do that. Coaches poll has at least a little more honesty and separation from media hype. Just the tiniest bit...
EDIT: Dammit FTW, 10 freaking seconds before me.
I'd say the coaches poll is probably worse than the media ones. Mostly because it's been shown that many coaches don't watch or pay much attention to teams they don't play in the next few games or at all that season. They just hand it off to an assistant or almost randomly fill it in.
On the other hand, these are people who actually know football rather than those that watch football or write about it. This is also why some coaches believe that there should be transparency every week to see who you voted for in the Coaches' Poll.
Yes, they know football better but they know their football. They are probably pretty accurate in ranking their conferences, but on a national level? Not so much.
They had an article about Saban voting a couple(?) years ago and he basically said that he watches maybe one, possibly two, games a week and they're usually who they play soon.
Exactly. Coaches don't have time to pay attention to teams they don't play. Do you think Beamer puts any thought into how good Arizona, UCLA, or Oklahoma is vs one another through the season?
I think I've actually seen lists of who voted for whom before. From USA Today itself, no less.
Usually the final poll of the year is released publicly
The top ten looks wide open to me this year
I seriously find it troubling that the poll has so many SEC teams. It's like the poll is addicted.
"No I swear that we can quit if we need to"
I guess the only thing you need to be ranked is to win at least 10 games in a year... or be in the SEC
If we were returning this same team in our 10-win era, we might have been top ten.
Exactly. I don't know why this is rubbing me wrong so much (maybe I'mm all hyped up over the OSU suspensions) but having 7 and 8 win SEC teams up there is complete lunacy.
I need to remember that preseason polls mean nothing (looking at you UNC) but the SEC bias is strong!
So I'm guessing Gary Patterson and Nick Saban both get to make first place votes?
My guess is Saban delegates his voting to Finebaum.
29 feels pretty comfortable and appropriate to me, seeing as we're really riding potential and hoping to avoid the injury bug again. Arkansas at 20 jumps out at me though.
The all-suspended team is getting close to cracking the top-25.
Nice to see Tennessee back where it belongs and at least ranked.
Also, not sure about pre-season, but in season, coaches don't fill out the "coaches poll". They will hand their list to an intern and say, "rank so and so #1,2,3.", and then leave the rest to the intern to fill out.
If I had that job, #5 would be Miami (Ohio) every single time, just for funsies.
I would rank teams solely based on fun/inappropriate anagrams that could be made.
I would put some rando $EC school, just so they can complain about not getting another team in the 4-team playoff.
And really, with the poll coming out today, let's just say it happens once in a blue moon.
Same thing will happen this year as last year. We beat anOSU, then rise up to just below them in the poll.
*except this year we won't lose the next two.
Is it the coaches poll or AP poll that shows up by the team on TV? I don't care really that we aren't ranked, 29 sounds right to me but I was kind of hoping we would be ranked in the top 20-25 so it would make the game on tv look a little more sexier.
Depends on the station. CBS, for example, always shows AP.
well in this case, ESPN
No, CBS shows whichever one gives them the highest numbers for the SEC teams playing at 3:30. I'm not even kidding, I know I saw them change polls at least once last year. Probably for week 6, when Alabama played Ole Miss. AP had them at 3/11, while the Coaches had them at 1/11. So of course, CBS went with the poll that gave them a #1 team.
In the BCS era, ESPN went with AP until the BCS rankings started. I can't remember exactly what they did last year, but they definitely start with AP.
I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and decided not to mention that in case I was imagining things. You, sir, confirmed that I was not.
If I remember correctly, these were the rankings on NCAA Football 2005 (2004 season) for USC and Tech. Random fact of the day.
I wonder if ESPN is going to manipulate the AP poll to get VT up to #25, just to have two ranked teams on Labor Day.
I feel like we speculate this every single year