First way back on January 30 , I put out my projected Preseason AP Top 10. At the time West Virginia (my pick for #10) was not a sure lock to be going to the Big 12 for the upcoming year, so I put a caveat on them saying that when they were announced to the Big 12, due to playing a tougher schedule, I would not place them in my Top 10 and instead put South Carolina in there.

Then on March 2 , I put out my projected preseason AP Top 24 (I indeed replaced West Virginia with South Carolina), and I mentioned it numerous times that this was NOT MY preseason Top 24 for next year, but it is where I project the AP Top 24 to come out at the start of the season. I also strategically projected 24 teams and not 25 because I feel confident that all 24 of these teams will be in the preseason Top 25 while leaving room for a wildcard team that could slip into the Top 25 due to injuries, suspensions, transfers or preseason magazine projections.

With today’s AP poll being released I thought I would do an analysis of how my new expanded projection did and was thoroughly pleased! First all 24 teams that I projected made the top 25! Also significant was the fact that all 10 of my projected Top 10 made the list making my projections 37 out of 40 (93%) the last four years. I did have LSU #1 in my projection, which is where they were placed in the Coaches’ poll a couple of weeks ago. However, with the recent news of the Tigers losing their All-American Tyrann Mathieu they slipped all the way to #3 in the Preseason AP Poll. It should be noted that the AP extended their voting deadline because of this and the early ballots before the Mathieu news would have placed LSU #1.

I was very happy to have all 11 teams in the AP Top 11 projected to be placed there FIVE months ago with Florida St (My pick for #1) a little lower projected and Arkansas (before Petrino let go) projected a little higher at that time! Also again since this was the first year that I projected the AP Top 24, I am very pleased to have all 24 teams in there as well!

You can now see that there is really no need to wait those agonizing five months prior to the season to see if your team will be ranked in the preseason Top 10/25…just make sure you are checking out my blog in January and March for my projected AP Top 25!

Only 12 Days Left Until the First College Football Game!