National Sports Advisors FBS College Football Top 25 Pre-Season Power Rankings: The kickoff is two weeks away with the first official game of the FBS (Division 1-A) game Thursday September 2nd at 6:30 PM ET with Head Coach Jim Grobe leading the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at home against the Presbyterian Blue Hose. Opening day will close with a night cap as Head Football Coach Lane Kiffen takes his USC Trojans on the road, or sea, to the Hawaii Warriors at 11:00 PM ET and will be seen on ESPN. The lone game matching ranked teams has Coach Dave Wanstandt’s Pittsburgh Panthers on the road at the Utah Utes and can be seen on Versus at 8:30 PM ET. Defending national champion(and #1 team in the preseason power ratings poll) Alabama opens up saturday, September 4th at home as a-39.5 point favorite versus overmatched San Jose St. Vegas odds makers have the Alabama Crimson Tide +350 odds to win the 2011 BCS National Championship.
After a careful review of their 2009 finish, the coaching staff, returning players, recruiting class, 2010 schedule, strength of conference and a few intangibles here is NSAwins.com’s FBS College Football Power Top 25 Pre-Season Rankings:
* Last Season’s record listed near each team.
1. Alabama 14-0
2. Ohio State 11-2
3. Florida 13-1
4. Texas 13-1
5. Oklahoma 8-5
6. Nebraska 10-4
7. Miami (Fla.) 9-4
8. Boise State 14-0
9. Virginia Tech 10-3
10. TCU 12-1
11. Oregon 10-3
12. Wisconsin 10-31
13. Pittsburgh 10-3
14. Penn State 11-2
15. LSU 9-4
16. Florida State 7-6
17. Georgia Tech 11-3
18. West Virginia 9-4
19. Arkansas 8-5
20. Iowa 11-2
21. Georgia 8-5
22. Oregon State 8-5
23. North Carolina 8-5
24. Auburn 8-5
25. Utah 10-3
Other Teams Receiving Strong Consideration:
Cincinnati (12-1); Houston (10-4); Brigham Young (11-2); Arizona (8-5); Mississippi (9-4); Clemson (9-5); Stanford (8-5); Connecticut (8-5); Notre Dame (6-6); South Carolina (7-6); Washington (5-7); Missouri (8-5) ; Navy (10-4; Oklahoma State (9-4); Boston College (8-5); Michigan State (6-7)
As the season unfolds these and maybe some surprise teams will play their way into the Top 25 Power Rankings.
With all the movement discussed and occurring with the college football conference realignment which conference is the best? Sportscasters have recently dubbed the SEC as the toughest and it has had a lot of National Champions recently, but is that because it’s the best or that it’s the easiest to go undefeated? Despite the media’s bias towards the SEC, my argument goes to the Big Ten as the toughest to go undefeated year in and year out top to bottom. The Big Ten doesn’t even have a Conference Championship game, yet! It does have depth. Every year there are at least a handful of teams that can beat any team in the conference where as some of the other major conferences have only one or two. The Big Ten will only get stronger when Nebraska joins the ranks. The odds makers at Bodog have the Ohio State Buckeyes -250 to win the Big Ten Conference.