247 Sports preseason football cumulative Top-25 rankings
247 came out with a cumulative top-25 preseason ranking list based on the preseason polls from 247Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN, Fox Sports, Athlon and The Sporting News. Each team was awarded 25 points for a #1 vote, 24 for #2, ...
Michigan comes in ranked at #2, with the following snippet:
2. MICHIGAN WOLVERINES
Cumulative points: 141
The word: Ranked no lower than No. 3 on any of these chosen preseason polls, the Wolverines are the favorite to win their third consecutive Big Ten Championship this season and get back to the College Football Playoff. Jim Harbaugh has lost his last six bowl games at Michigan, so that's a statistic that needs to change. He's expecting this 2023 team to be his strongest considering Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards return in the backfield along with potential All-Big Ten signal caller JJ McCarthy.
I try not to put too much stock into preseason rankings, but damn it’s hard not to be hyped for the 2023 season.
TAMU is notably absent from the rankings. Is this the year their 'best of all time' 2022 recruiting class starts to pay off? Any teams you see on here that are out of place (too high or too low) in your early opinions?
Agree....
March 21st, 2023 at 10:46 AM ^
I like MeLLLLLLL
If fired does Tuck still collect the $100M? I’ll do it for $10M.
Not really, and there's more reason to think they'll be worse. The DL turned over quite a bit, the QB is gone, the WR is gone. Who do they even have? Their recruiting has been solid but those guys are still very young. They'll be more dependent on transfers than ever.
This year's PSU is dangerous as hell. Probably their most talented team in the Franklin era. And with OSU, it all comes down to their defense again. We weren't the only ones to score a ton of points on them - everybody did. Hell, they had a 14 point lead on Georgia in the 4th quarter and still managed to blow it.
Wolve, I like how Knowles leads their D. Don’t change a thing….
This year's PSU is dangerous as hell. Probably their most talented team in the Franklin era. And with OSU, it all comes down to their defense again. We weren't the only ones to score a ton of points on them - everybody did. Hell, they had a 14 point lead on Georgia in the 4th quarter and still managed to blow it.
Not their most talented team. They never actually beat anybody last year. PSU just beat up on the rest of the BIG not named OSU/UM. That isn't saying much.
@ Happy Valley is always a toss up so I'm not discounting them, only that the team itself isn't anything great.
What have we seen from Allar to say he is the guy at QB besides high school rankings. Nothing he did on the field last season made me think he is going to blow up this year as a full time starter.
PSU's big issue wrt Michigan is that Franklin built that team to play with OSU. They are fast and athletic. They are also small on the lines and Michigan pushes them around. Michigan is a terrible matchup for PSU. It wasn't a scheme issue when Michigan ran for 400 yrds on the ground last season. It was that the PSU Dline and Oline got physically manhandled.
There is no immediate fix for that. That is a philosophy decision they made years ago to combat OSU and it will take several recruiting classes before they can remedy the size difference on the field.
In short, I think they're probably still F'd and Michigan runs the crowd out of the game and PSU out of their own building.
@Minny and @NE could prove to be much more difficult games for UM to win. Minny is like a Michigan lite, we both play a similar style and brand of football, and we don't know what NE will be but they will be playing hard for a new coach and that place is a true home field advantage for them.
Love the attention.
Don’t put too much stock into it.
My biggest problem with preseason rankings is the overemphasis on skill position players (offense specifically) and lack of focus on linemen and defense.
this write up is the perfect example.
I thoroughly enjoy TAMU's run of mediocrity. 2nd tier team tries to buy their way into the 1st tier and fails spectacularly? It gets a sensible chuckle out of me every time
Rat poison!
Don’t care. Show me in the fall
Three B1G East teams in the top five. Penn State at #5, the Buckeyes at #3, and Michigan at #2.
It would appear - on this paper - that the B1G East will be the toughest division in college football this fall.
One play, series, and game - at a time.
Go Blue!
That’s true every year.
Will be extremely hard to go through the B1G undefeated this year. It's just flat out loaded
As I watch BPONE slowly recede over the horizon I can't help but be a little cautious. After all, when the expectation is beating OSU three years in a row, winning the B1G three years in a row and finally fielding a truly competitive team in the playoffs, there's nowhere to go but down, is there?
Yet... this team feels for all the world like it'll be the best in my lifetime (I'm 50) and anything less than those expectations is setting our sights too low.
I concur. Do you concur?
Is this a reference to “Catch me if you can”?
March 21st, 2023 at 12:26 PM ^
I was let go from a Dallas CPA firm by the boss who's a TAMU alum and huge booster, the day before APP State ruined their season last year. Was such a gratifying piece of poetic justice 15 years after they did it to us. He knew Michigan fandom and he was so proud of that recruiting class. I enjoyed every subsequent AM loss last year as much as any OSU loss
Cautiously optimistic.
Regarding A&M. If Petrino works out as OC, that is a 10+ win season. If it is every bit the disaster as Petrino's track record would have me believe, Jimbo Fisher may be about to make a massive payday in the form of an unbelievable buyout.