Week 2 · Thu Sep 10
The Sportsvyn 25Preseason · Edition 0
- 1Ohio StateAn FPI of 28.7, the highest of 138 teams. Sayin completed 77 percent for more than 3,600 yards and Jeremiah Smith returns with Carnell Tate gone to the NFL.
- 2TexasThey went 10-3 and beat the third-ranked and eighteenth-ranked teams in the closing stretch. Cam Coleman and Hollywood Smothers arrive for a quarterback whose second half was his first good football.
- 3Notre DameCarr's 9.4 yards per attempt tied for second nationally and broke the program's single-season passer rating record. He is the first returning starter Notre Dame has had since 2020.
- 4OregonThirteen wins, a semifinal, and fourth in the final AP poll at 13-2. Moore came back rather than enter the draft after a 30-touchdown season, and the November date in Columbus is the whole schedule.
- 5Georgia12-1 and an SEC title with a first-year starter who completed better than 70 percent and scored 31 times. Stockton is the least discussed quarterback of the top five.
- 6IndianaThe first 16-0 team in the sport's history is replacing the Heisman winner who made it possible. Hoover inherits the system, not the season.
- 7MiamiSecond in the final AP poll at 13-3 after reaching the title game as a ten seed, now handing the offense to a transfer who threw for nearly 4,000 yards and 34 touchdowns and won the ACC with Duke.
- 8Ole MissThird in the final poll at 13-2. Chambliss won the job in Week 3, threw for nearly 4,000 yards, finished eighth in Heisman voting and litigated his way to a sixth year. He also lost his head coach to LSU.
- 9Texas A&MEighth in the final poll after starting 11-0 and losing to Texas and then to Miami in the first round. Reed returns, and so does the schedule that made the 11-0 possible.
- 10Texas TechTwelve wins, a Big 12 title, and a 23-0 quarterfinal shutout on the way out. The two-deep is still the deepest in the conference and the quarterback room is not settled.
- 11LSUUnranked in the final poll. Kiffin arrives with 41 transfers in and 38 out and Leavitt at quarterback, which is the least continuous roster anywhere in this top fifteen. Week 3 against Ole Miss is the game the season is built around.
- 12AlabamaNinth in the final poll, which is four spots higher than a 28-7 loss in Atlanta and a 38-3 quarterfinal deserved. They beat Oklahoma 34-24 on the road and have no settled quarterback. The name is the only argument left and we do not rank names.
- 13OklahomaThirteenth in the final poll at 10-3, and Mateer returns to a roster that added through the portal. The rushing volume is the differentiator; the SEC schedule is what turns every number into a résumé line.
- 14UtahFourteenth in the final poll at 11-2, closing with a 44-22 win over Nebraska in Las Vegas. The least discussed eleven-win team in the country.
- 15BYUEleventh in the final poll. 11-1 in the regular season with the only loss to Texas Tech, then a second loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, then 25-21 over Georgia Tech in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Bachmeier and LJ Martin both return.
- Dark Horses
- 16Penn StateSeven and six, and then most of an Iowa State roster arrived with Rocco Becht. The schedule is the softest of any team with real talent.
- 17USCTwentieth in the final poll with nine wins, Riley, and a roster nobody is putting inside the top fifteen. That combination has produced exactly one kind of season in his career and it has not happened yet at USC.
- 18MichiganTwenty-first in the final poll, closing with a 41-27 loss to Texas in the Citrus Bowl. The gap between that and a playoff berth is one quarterback.
- 19VirginiaSixteenth in the final poll at 11-3, with a 13-7 Gator Bowl win over Missouri. Eleven wins in the ACC and almost nobody outside Charlottesville noticed.
- 20Hawai'iNine wins, Alejado back, and two Power Four road games on the schedule. Winning one of them is a full playoff argument in a conference whose best teams left.
- 21VanderbiltFifteenth in the final poll, ending on a 34-27 ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Iowa.
- 22IowaSeventeenth in the final poll, and the team that won that game.
- 23TulaneEighteenth in the final poll and an eleven seed in the playoff, out 41-10 to Ole Miss. Jon Sumrall then left for Florida.
- 24James MadisonNineteenth in the final poll and the twelve seed, out 51-34 to Oregon. The only Sun Belt team in the final 25.
- 25TCUTwenty-fifth in the final poll, now without Josh Hoover, who led the nation in passing and left for Indiana.