Athlon Sports Top 25 For 2017
Notable teams:
#20: Notre Dame (???)
#16: Florida
#12: Wisconsin
#10: Michigan (to high...yea or nay?)
#6 Penn St. (slightly overrated imo)
#2: Ohio St
#1: Alabama
https://athlonsports.com/college-football/very-early-college-football-t…
usually there are 2 - 3 teams that are clearly "elite" and then about 7-10 teams that are missing some key things but are still damn good and can contend.
This is how I would group them:
Elite = Alabama, OSU and FSU
Contenders = USC, WU, Oklahoma, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Clemson, Michigan, PSU, Wisconsin
I think this year the winner of USC vs WU has a great shot at the playoffs. In the B1G, someone will need to upset OSU to make the playoffs. Same thing in the ACC and SEC, with FSU and Alabama. Would love to see the playoffs expanded to 8 teams - dump the conference championship games and replace them with round 1 of the playoffs. That would deliver the undisputed 4 best teams to the bowl season playoffs.