Good morning, Gator Nation: Your voices have been heard!
When we asked you a couple of weeks ago to give us your preseason rankings of college football teams for the 2010, you came through. We got enough responses to compile our first Gator Country.com Preseason Top 25.
Like most of the preseason magazines’ Top 25 rankings, our Gator Country.com Preseason Top 25 has a crimson color to it. Our 22 panelists have determined that reigning BCS national champion Alabama is the choice to win it all in 2010. Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide, 14-0 in 2009, received 14 first-place votes and totaled 533 points, five more than the Ohio State Buckeyes, who received six first-place votes from our pollsters and were 11-2 last season.
Boise State, which also went 14-0 in 2009, finished third in our preseason balloting, just three points ahead of Urban Meyer’s Gators, who went 13-1 for the third time in four seasons, two of which (2006, ’08) ended with BCS national championships. The Gators picked up a first-place vote and finished ahead of fifth-place Texas, which lost to Alabama in the Citi BCS National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
Ranked Nos. 6-10 are Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Texas Christian, Nebraska and Iowa. The Cornhuskers received the final first-place vote of the 22 ballots cast.
Miami (Fla.) leads off the Second Ten at No. 11 and is followed by Southern California, Louisiana State, Oregon and Wisconsin. Nos. 16-20 are Auburn, Penn State, Utah, Arkansas and North Carolina. Nos. 21-25 are Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Georgia, Florida State and Stanford.
A total of 47 schools received points in the rankings. We would like to thank the following members of Gator Country.com for casting their ballots and we will be asking you to be our voters for the 2010 season: Wuerffel5220, Gatorbogey, Slayerxing, GatorPrincess8, ChrisLeakFan4Life, StuckUpNorthGator, GatorBill, OklahomaGator, GatorDMB89, Greater Gator, RomG8R, GatorzGuy28, Fire801, Specter177, Gator0316, Mahoney1, GatorABE7, MikeHev, BuckeyePilot607, Tito22, GatorsFan530 and TheGrayGator.
The next Gator Country.com poll will be released on Monday, Sept. 6 following season-opening games the weekend of Sept. 3-5. Members of the Gator Country.com staff will add their votes to the 22 who cast preseason ballots once the regular season begins.
THE GATOR COUNTRY.com TOP 25 / PRESEASON
Here is the 2010 Gator Country.com Preseason Top 25 college football poll as determined by members. The number in parentheses represents the number of first-place votes the school received and it is followed by total points, last season’s final record and last season’s final Congrove Computer Ranking (CCR 120):
Rnk Team (1st) Pts 2009 CCR
1. Alabama (14) 533 14-0 1
2. Ohio State (6) 528 11-2 7
3. Boise State 472 14-0 4
4. Florida (1) 469 13-1 2
5. Texas 440 13-1 3
6. Virginia Tech 383 10-3 11
7. Oklahoma 377 8-5 21
8. Texas Christian 368 12-1 5
9. Nebraska (1) 310 10-4 17
10. Iowa 306 11-2 12
11. Miami (Fla.) 260 9-4 26
12. Southern California 259 9-4 20
13. Louisiana State 252 9-4 22
14. Oregon 238 10-3 13
15. Wisconsin 228 10-3 19
16. Auburn 182 8-5 47
17. Penn State 164 11-2 8
18. Utah 158 10-3 16
19. Arkansas 157 8-5 33
20. North Carolina 156 8-5 42
21. Georgia Tech 150 11-3 14
22. Pittsburgh 119 10-3 15
23. Georgia 88 8-5 36
24. Florida State 79 7-6 53
25. Stanford 64 8-5 35
Also receiving votes: South Carolina 63 (7-6/56), West Virginia 55 (9-4/29), Notre Dame 45 (6-6/60), Clemson 43 (9-5/32), Oregon State 29 (8-5/37), Washington 28 (5-7/81), Cincinnati 27 (12-1/6), Houston 22 (10-4/27), Oklahoma State 18 (9-4/24), Texas Tech 13 (9-4/18), Brigham Young 10 (11-2/9), Michigan State 9 (6-7/64), Michigan 7 (5-7/78), Boston College 6 (8-5/44), Rutgers 5 (9-4/28), Mississippi 4 (9-4/25), Air Force 2 (8-5/41), South Florida 2 (8-5/48), Texas A&M 2 (6-7/70), Virginia 2 (3-9/103), Duke 1 (5-7/85), Southern Mississippi 1 (7-6/58).