Never Too Early - 2012 Pre-Season Top 25

While I realize the college football season just came to an end (with quite a yawn, I might add), it’s never too early to take a peek at the possible pre-season rankings for the 2012 season. ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Athlon and others have already put out their top 25 for next season, so I figured it was the Dirt’s turn. I analyzed what each team has coming back, looked at the other pre-season top 25 lists and took a few leaps; but here is my 2012 pre-season top25 – included is their spot in the ESPN poll, and final ranking from this season…. Enjoy:

Rank	The Dirt Poll	ESPN	FINAL
1	LSU	1	2
2	Oregon	4	4
3	USC	2	6
4	Georgia	6	19
5	Oklahoma	5	16
6	Alabama	3	1
7	Michigan	11	12
8	South Carolina	10	9
9	Florida State	8	23
10	West Virginia	7	17
11	Michigan State	9	11
12	Virginia Tech	18	21
13	Clemson	22	22
14	Texas	21	20
15	Notre Dame	23	NA
16	Washington	NA	NA
17	Nebraska	13	25
18	Arkansas	14	5
19	Kansas State	12	15
20	TCU	15	14
21	Utah	NA	NA
22	Wisconsin	19	10
23	Louisville	25	NA
24	Stanford	17	7
25	California	NA	NA

Final College Football Top 25 Rankings

It’s been a long and fun season (though it ended without a bang) – now it’s time to take one last look at the season. All the bowl games are over, so here is my final top 25 rankings for the season. Included is the team’s final record, their ranking prior to the bowl games and their final AP ranking for the season: check it out:

Rank	The Dirt Poll	Record	LW	AP
1	Alabama	12-1 (7-1)	3	1
2	LSU	13-1 (9-0)	1	2
3	Oregon	12-2 (9-1)	4	4
4	Oklahoma State	12-1 (8-1)	2	3
5	Stanford	11-2 (8-1)	5	7
6	Arkansas	11-2 (6-2)	8	5
7	USC	10-2 (6-2)	6	6
8	South Carolina	11-2 (6-2)	9	9
9	Michigan	11-2 (6-2)	10	12
10	Baylor	10-3 (6-3)	12	13
11	West Virginia	10-3 (5-2)	21	17
12	Wisconsin	11-3 (7-2)	7	10
13	Michigan State	11-3 (7-2)	15	11
14	Boise State	12-1 (6-1)	16	8
15	Kansas State	10-3 (7-2)	11	15
16	Oklahoma	10-3 (6-3)	22	16
17	Southern Miss.	12-2 (7-2)	18	20
18	Virginia Tech	11-3 (7-2)	14	21
19	Clemson	10-4 (7-2)	13	22
20	Georgia	10-4 (7-2)	17	19
21	TCU	11-2 (7-0)	20	14
22	Houston	12-1 (8-1)	25	18
23	Florida State	9-4 (5-3)	23	23
24	Nebraska	9-4 (5-3)	19	24
25	Utah	8-5 (4-5)	NA	NA

·         Notes:

o   Dropped out: #24 Penn State – lost to #25 Houston

o   Moved in: #25 Utah – defeated Georgia Tech

·         Ranked Teams Per Conference:

o   SEC – 5

o   Big 10 – 4

o   Big 12 – 4

o   Pac 12 – 4

o   ACC – 3

o   Mountain West – 2

o   Conference USA – 2

o   Big East – 1