Preseason Consensus Poll: July 24 Update

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We are back once again with the Preseason Consensus Poll, where we average all of the nationally published top 25 polls in preseason magazines and online sites. This first sampling finds USC as the clear cut No. 1 team heading into the preseason in college football. We will update this poll through mid-August. Click this free link for the poll as well as BCS bowl projections and more.

By Steve Helwagen

Bucknuts.com

Welcome to the first installment of the 2007 Preseason Consensus Poll.

Each year, it is my mission in life to produce an ongoing consensus preseason top 25 for college football. The premise is simple: We use the published polls on web sites and in magazines as “votes” in our own consensus poll. Teams ranked No. 1 get 25 points and so on down to one point for those ranked 25th.

We will maintain this list and add to it every time a new preseason list is released right up through the release of the preseason Associated Press media poll in August.

A year ago, the final edition of the Preseason Consensus Poll correctly predicted one of the two participants in the BCS national championship game. The poll had Ohio State No. 1 and the Buckeyes played Florida, ranked ninth in the preseason poll, for the national title.

There were six preseason polls that listed both Ohio State and Florida in the top five. They were Athlon Sports (OSU fourth, Florida fifth), Lindy’s (OSU second, Florida fifth), CollegeFootballNews.com (Florida second, OSU fifth), Street & Smith’s (OSU first, Florida fifth), The Gold Sheet (OSU fourth, Florida fifth) and Blue Ribbon (OSU first, Florida fifth).

In terms of the other BCS games, the participants were: Rose, USC (fifth in preseason poll)-Michigan (14th); Sugar, LSU (eighth)-Notre Dame (third); Orange, Louisville (11th)-Wake Forest (not in top 40); and Fiesta, Boise State (29th)-Oklahoma (seventh).

Top-10 preseason poll teams that did not make BCS bowls included Texas (second), West Virginia (fourth), Auburn (sixth) and Florida State (10th).

So, although your favorite team may not be in the top 10 to start the year, that shows there is some hope that they will still play in a major bowl.

So far, we have as many as 13 preseason polls.

We have polls from Athlon Sports, The Sporting News, CBSSportsLine.com (Dennis Dodd), SI.com (Stewart Mandel), CollegeFootballNews.com, Lindy’s, NationalChamps.net, Street & Smith’s, Phil Steele, ESPN.com (Mark Schlabach), AutumnSpectacle.com, StatFox.com and the CBS SportsLine.com preseason magazine.

It is almost a clean sweep for USC in the top spot. The Trojans received 12 of the 13 first-place votes. Only AutumnSpectacle.com, which picked LSU, put a team other than LSU in the top spot.

In terms of conference strength, the SEC again seems to be tops with four top-15 teams and six top-20 teams – more than any other conference in both regards. The Big Ten has four teams in the top 20, but nobody else in the 41-team poll. The Big East, Pac-10 and Big 12 all have three teams in the top 20. The ACC places just one team in the top 20.

If you had to project the various BCS bowls off of these predictions, you would be looking at:

* Rose: Tues., Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m. (ABC) – Michigan (Big Ten champ) vs. Oklahoma (BCS at-large). Rose gets first choice to replace USC and goes for Oklahoma over Louisville.

* Sugar: Tues., Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m. (FOX) – Florida (BCS at-large) vs. Wisconsin (BCS at-large). Sugar drafts Florida to replace LSU, then gets Wisconsin on the second go-around.

* Fiesta: Wed., Jan. 2, 8 p.m. (FOX) – Texas (Big 12 champ) vs. Louisville (BCS at-large). Fiesta takes Louisville with last BCS bid. Ohio State and Georgia were ineligible as the third school from their respective leagues, dropping them likely into a Capital One Bowl berth.

* Orange: Thurs., Jan. 3, 8 p.m. (FOX) – West Virginia (Big East champ) vs. Virginia Tech (ACC champ). Natural match-up of Mid-Atlantic rivals.

* National championship game (at New Orleans): Mon., Jan. 7, 8 p.m. (FOX) – USC vs. LSU. This seems to be the consensus, and how can you blame anybody after the way these two closed with strong bowl wins last year?

If you see a published poll that we are missing, please send a link or the list to shelwage@columbus.rr.com

Here is a look at the Preseason Consensus Poll on July 23:

Preseason Consensus Poll

(First-Place votes; last year’s record in parentheses)

1. USC (12 first-place votes; 11-2), 324 points

2. LSU (1; 11-2), 298 points

3. West Virginia (11-2), 280 points

4. Michigan (11-2), 270 points

5. Texas (10-3), 256 points

6. Florida (13-1), 251 points

7. Wisconsin (12-1), 237 points

8. Oklahoma (11-3), 234 points

9. Virginia Tech (10-3), 224 points

10. Louisville (12-1), 192 points

11. Ohio State (12-1), 178 points

12. Georgia (9-4), 140 points

13. California (10-3), 135 points

14. Arkansas (10-4), 126 points

15. Rutgers (11-2), 123 points

16. UCLA (7-6), 111 points

17. Tennessee (9-4), 102 points

18. Auburn (11-2), 101 points

19. Penn State (9-4), 94 points

20. Nebraska (9-5), 74.5 points

21. TCU (11-2), 71 points

22. Texas A&M (9-4), 61 points

23. Florida State (7-6), 59 points

24. South Carolina (8-5), 40 points

25. Boise State (13-0), 34 points

26. Hawaii (11-3), 29 points

27. Wake Forest (11-3), 27 points

28. Boston College (10-3), 25 points

29. Alabama (6-7), 23 points

30. Georgia Tech (9-5), 17 points

31. Missouri (8-5), 15.5 points

32. Oregon State (10-4), 14 points

33. South Florida (9-4), 12 points

34. Arizona State (7-6), 10 points

35. (tie) BYU (11-2), 9 points

35. (tie) Clemson (8-5), 9 points

37. Oregon (7-6), 8 points

38. (tie) Arizona (6-6), 2 points

38. (tie) Miami (Fla.) (7-6), 2 points

38. (tie) Notre Dame (10-3), 2 points

38. (tie) Southern Miss (9-5), 2 points

Lindy’s

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Michigan

4. West Virginia

5. Texas

6. Wisconsin

7. Tennessee

8. Virginia Tech

9. Louisville

10. Oklahoma

11. Florida

12. California

13. Ohio State

14. Arkansas

15. TCU

16. Rutgers

17. Georgia

18. Texas A&M

19. Hawaii

20. Wake Forest

21. Florida State

22. UCLA

23. Auburn

24. Boston College

25. Nebraska

Athlon Sports

1. USC

2. Texas

3. LSU

4. Wisconsin

5. West Virginia

6. Florida

7. Oklahoma

8. Michigan

9. Virginia Tech

10. Rutgers

11. California

12. Ohio State

13. Louisville

14. Georgia Tech

15. UCLA

16. Georgia

17. Penn State

18. Nebraska

19. Hawaii

20. Tennessee

21. Auburn

22. Oregon State

23. Texas A&M

24. Miami (Fla.)

25. TCU

The Sporting News

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Michigan

4. West Virginia

5. Florida

6. Texas

7. Virginia Tech

8. Wisconsin

9. Louisville

10. UCLA

11. Florida State

12. California

13. Oklahoma

14. Georgia

15. Penn State

16. Auburn

17. Ohio State

18. Tennessee

19. Rutgers

20. TCU

21. South Florida

22. Boise State

23. Nebraska

24. Southern Miss

25. BYU

Phil Steele’s College Football Preview

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Oklahoma

4. West Virginia

5. Michigan

6. Texas

7. Louisville

8. Florida State

9. Virginia Tech

10. Penn State

11. Georgia

12. Hawaii

13. South Carolina

14. Florida

15. Ohio State

16. Wisconsin

17. Alabama

18. Oregon

19. Missouri

20. Texas A&M

21. UCLA

22. Nebraska

23. TCU

24. South Florida

25. Tennessee

Street & Smith’s

1. USC

2. West Virginia

3. Wisconsin

4. LSU

5. Michigan

6. Florida

7. Oklahoma

8. Texas

9. Virginia Tech

10. Louisville

11. California

12. Arkansas

13. Penn State

14. Auburn

15. Ohio State

16. Georgia

17. UCLA

18. Missouri

19. Rutgers

20. Nebraska

21. Tennessee

22. Clemson

23. TCU

24. Oregon State

25. Boise State

CBS SportsLine.com (preview magazine)

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Michigan

4. West Virginia

5. Florida

6. Wisconsin

7. Louisville

8. Texas

9. Oklahoma

10. Virginia Tech

11. Auburn

12. UCLA

13. Arkansas

14. California

15. Ohio State

16. Tennessee

17. TCU

18. Rutgers

19. Boise State

20. Georgia

21. Texas A&M

22. Penn State

23. Boston College

24. Nebraska

25. Hawaii

StatFox.com

1. USC

2. Texas

3. Florida

4. Wisconsin

5. West Virginia

6. LSU

7. Ohio State

8. Arkansas

9. Michigan

10. Virginia Tech

11. Nebraska

12. Oklahoma

13. Rutgers

14. Florida State

15. Georgia

16. Tennessee

17. TCU

18. Texas A&M

19. Alabama

20. Wake Forest

21. Clemson

22. Oregon State

23. South Florida

24. Arizona

25. Auburn

CBS SportsLine.com (Dennis Dodd)

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Michigan

4. West Virginia

5. Wisconsin

6. Virginia Tech

7. Florida

8. Texas

9. Louisville

10. Oklahoma

11. Auburn

12. California

13. UCLA

14. Tennessee

15. Ohio State

16. Arkansas

17. TCU

18. Rutgers

19. Boise State

20. Georgia

21. South Carolina

22. Texas A&M

23. BYU

24. Notre Dame

25. (tie) Nebraska

25. (tie) Missouri

SI.com (Stewart Mandel)

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Florida

4. West Virginia

5. Louisville

6. Michigan

7. Virginia Tech

8. Texas

9. Oklahoma

10. Wisconsin

11. Ohio State

12. Rutgers

13. Arkansas

14. Penn State

15. Boise State

16. Auburn

17. Tennessee

18. Nebraska

19. Georgia

20. California

21. TCU

22. UCLA

23. Oregon State

24. South Carolina

25. South Florida

NationalChamps.net

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Michigan

4. Florida

5. West Virginia

6. Wisconsin

7. Texas

8. Oklahoma

9. Louisville

10. Ohio State

11. Virginia Tech

12. Arkansas

13. California

14. Auburn

15. Georgia

16. Rutgers

17. Penn State

18. Nebraska

19. Tennessee

20. Texas A&M

21. Boston College

22. UCLA

23. TCU

24. South Carolina

25. South Florida

ESPN.com (Mark Schlabach)

1. USC

2. Michigan

3. West Virginia

4. Wisconsin

5. Oklahoma

6. Virginia Tech

7. Texas

8. Florida

9. California

10. LSU

11. Louisville

12. Arkansas

13. Rutgers

14. Ohio State

15. Texas A&M

16. Georgia

17. Penn State

18. Nebraska

19. TCU

20. Auburn

21. Tennessee

22. Boise State

23. UCLA

24. Wake Forest

25. Alabama

CollegeFootballNews.com

1. USC

2. LSU

3. Texas

4. Florida

5. Wisconsin

6. Ohio State

7. Oklahoma

8. Arkansas

9. UCLA

10. Michigan

11. West Virginia

12. Georgia

13. Virginia Tech

14. Auburn

15. Nebraska

16. Tennessee

17. Florida State

18. California

19. Boston College

20. Texas A&M

21. Rutgers

22. Georgia Tech

23. TCU

24. Penn State

25. Oregon State

AutumnSpectacle.com

1. LSU

2. USC

3. West Virginia

4. Oklahoma

5. Louisville

6. Michigan

7. Georgia

8. South Carolina

9. Virginia Tech

10. Ohio State

11. Florida

12. Texas

13. Wake Forest

14. Rutgers

15. UCLA

16. Arizona State

17. Penn State

18. Boston College

19. California

20. Alabama

21. BYU

22. Texas A&M

23. TCU

24. Wisconsin

25. Georgia Tech