Meaningless Preseason Rankings

Your Top 25:

[Marvin Gentry/USA Today Sports]

Rk	Team	Pts
1	Alabama	40.1

Since we started Dynamite Rankings, Alabama has finished the season 1st, 5th, 2nd, and 1st. They've won four national championships over the past seven seasons. They're hard not to put at #1.

2

Clemson

38.0

Last year's ACC champs and national runners-up promise to return with their explosive offensive, including Heisman-finalist QB Deshaun Watson, but last year's elite, often-overlooked defense lost their biggest stars to the draft.

3

Ohio State

37.8

Despite losing to Michigan State, the Buckeyes looked like the best team in the Big Ten last year. But Ohio State lost a lot of talent to the draft (Joey Bosa, Ezekiel Elliott, Braxton Miller...), and their schedule includes trips to Norman and East Lansing and a resurgent Michigan squad.

4

Oklahoma

36.4

Last year's Big Twelve champs look to repeat, returning QB Baker Mayfield and RB Samaje Perine. However, the Sooners did lose WR Sterling Shepard and four star defensemen to the draft, and their non-conference schedule includes Houston and Ohio State before diving into the Big XII season with TCU.

5

Navy

35.2

Navy ended their inaugural season in the American Athletic Conference at 11-2, losing only to Houston and Notre Dame, but their record-setting QB Keenan Reynolds was drafted by the Ravens.

6	Baylor	35.0
7	LSU	34.2
8	Stanford	34.0
9	Notre Dame	33.6
10	Ole Miss	33.6
11	Michigan	32.9
12	Houston	32.3
13	Tennessee	31.9
14	Michigan State	31.7
15	Boise State	31.4
16	Florida State	31.3
17	Air Force	31.1
18	Washington	31.0
19	Utah	30.7
20	Georgia Southern	30.7
21	Arkansas	30.7
22	North Carolina	30.2
23	Oregon	29.7
24	USC	29.7
25	Georgia Tech	29.3

Conference Rankings

Conference	Average
SEC	26.70
ACC	26.64
Pac-12	25.32
Big Ten	25.16
Big XII	23.01
American	19.66
Mountain West	18.74
MAC	16.04
Sun Belt	12.77
C-USA	11.27

A College Football Appetizer

(#117) Hawaii vs. (#44) Cal (10 PM EDT, F 8/26, ESPN)

In what can only be described as an athletic director's fever dream, Hawaii and Cal will play each other in Sydney, Australia, a week before the college football season really gets going Labor Day weekend. Even more absurdly, Hawaii plays a noon game at Michigan eight days afterward. That's right; Hawaii's football team will span ten time zones in a little over a week and will then be expected to play football at 6 AM in their home time zone. Cal, more sensibly, will have a bye Labor Day weekend. Cal had an 8-5 season last year, and that was with Jared Goff who passed for more yards than any other Power Five quarterback in 2015. Goff has since been drafted by the Rams, but whatever Cal's worries, they should be able to get past Hawaii, who went 3-10 last year.

Line: Cal by 44.5