HTR's Official Meaningless Preseason Top 25

While it's somewhat hypocritical of me to spend time compiling a preseason top 25 given that I'm of the "no polls till mid-October" opinion, there's just a little more open space to fill here before actual football starts to happen in all its glory. So, here's my top 25. It means nothing, but it is always neat to check back at the end of the season to see how many stupid things I said in late August. After a full offseason of reading Pre-Snap Read and Bill C's work, here's what I've got:

Rank	Team
1	LSU
2	USC
3	Alabama
4	Oregon
5	Oklahoma
6	Georgia
7	West Virginia
8	South Carolina
9	Michigan State
10	Florida State
11	Michigan
12	Virginia Tech
13	Wisconsin
14	Texas
15	Clemson
16	Arkansas
17	Nebraska
18	TCU
19	Stanford
20	Utah
21	Oklahoma State
22	Missouri
23	Ohio State
24	Kansas State
25	Boise State

Some things to ponder: 

• The triumvirate. Last year it was LSU, Alabama, and Oklahoma starting out at the top; this year, just sub in a possibly legitimately "back" USC team. Each of these teams has issues (LSU-the secondary, USC-basically the defense as a whole, Alabama-lots of talent to replace on both sides of the ball) but this is college football. Every teams has issues. With that said, I'm buying approximately infinity shares in Lane Kiffin Enterprises. That offense is just unfair. Barkley throwing to Marqise Lee and Robert Woods and handing off to Silas Redd or Curtis McNeal. Good luck stopping that, college football. As for Alabama and LSU, you probably know more than enough about them after what happened last season. They won't let you score and they'll run the ball run through your face over and over again. 

• Speaking of hype trains on which I have jumped...West Virginia! It's definitely possible that I'm giving WVU too much credit for a big bowl win, but I think this team is perfect for the Big 12. The Syracuse loss last year was a bit of a head scratcher, but I honestly think WVU in 2012 leans more toward its Orange Bowl form than its form against the Orangemen. 

• Notre Dame. Okay, so last season I was suckered into not only predicted a legitimate Florida State resurgence but a ND one as well. I had the Irish down for 10 wins, which, to be fair, probably should have happened if not for a complete and utter derpacolypse descending upon ND against USF and Michigan. Unfortunately for ND, I think having a better season in 2012 is going to be pretty impossible given the schedule. Plus, the situation at QB is a question mark--who knows what Everett Golson will look like--and the secondary is just waiting to give up 400+ yards passing to Matt Barkley down the road. Otherwise, ND should have a decent front 7 and a strong ground game, but I'm not sure that that will be enough to improve upon last season's 8-5 mark. 

• Getting off the blocks. I've got Georgia winning the SEC East, but a few suspensions on defense have given me pause, especially since UGA travels to Mizzou in Week 2. It doesn't sound like Richt hasn't finalized the length of the suspensions to Alec Ogletree, Sanders Commings, and Bacarri Rambo, but they're all going to be missing the game against Mizzou. UGA needs to avoid an early loss (a la last season's 0-2 start) if the annoying HURR DURR MARK RICHT HOT SEAT discussions are going to be avoided. 

• Everybody is gone. About Boise...I just don't know. I'm slotting them in there out of respect for Chris Petersen, but they've got to replace six NFL draft picks plus Kellen Moore (who somehow went undrafted). That's a tall order...they just have to fall off, right?

• Meh. Kansas State, Arkansas...meh. I don't think there's any way KSU replicates what it was able to pull off last season, but I'm pretty sure people have said that very thing about Bill Snyder-coached teams many times before. As for Arkansas, I'm just not buying that. Nice offensive skill players in Tyler Wilson, Knile Davis, and Cobi Hamilton, but the defense just isn't there and in spite of all the Internet snark and wisecracking, you really do get the feeling that JLS is going to take this team that should probably win at least 9 and run it into the ground. 

• Michigan. I'll put up some sort of season predictions post later this week, but for now I'll just say that Michigan is probably not a top 10 team right now (not that it really matters). Beat Alabama and you can say hello to Michigan's highest ranking since the 2007 preseason. 

Pac 12 South Preview: The Odyssey and Other Familiar Stories of Personal Relevance

Already blabbered about: SEC West, SEC East, ACC Coastal, ACC Atlantic, Big 12 (Part 1), Big 12 (Part 2), Pac 12 North 

So, I got a little lazy last week and decided not to finish the Pac 12 preview in a timely fashion. With that said, this will probably be the last preview, because the time spent to page views ratio is pretty grim, not unlike Nick Sheridan's completion percentage on passes going farther than five yards past the line of scrimmage. Yeah, that means no Big East preview (or worse, MAC, Conference USA, etc.). I have my limits. 

After this post, I promise that it'll be all Michigan the rest of the way until 9/1. No more of this "talking about other teams" business. I will do this in spite of the fact that there is really nothing Michigan-centric to discuss/write about right now other than maybe some Denard Robinson fan fiction and possibly a season overview that features some variation of the following: "the 2012 team will have a worse record than last year's team but will actually be better." You know, mostly annoying things. Anyway, here's some stuff about the Pac 12 South for all you tens of search engine wayfarers getting ensnared in this shoddy SEO web. 

This man wears sunglasses inside--at least, I think it's inside, but since it's the Pac 12 he might also be on the top of a mountain somewhere getting all zen and whatnot--and might actually be good at coaching football, which flies in the face of pretty much every pre-conceived notion regarding Lane Kiffin that you've ever had. 

Prologue 
The 2011 season in the Pac 12 South was like when you're watching Jeopardy and you're just killing it, getting every answer right and generally making your friends look like they're operating on a plane of existence several levels beneath yours. After a while it just gets sad, and you just sit out a round to let somebody else shine for a little while. You jump in and nail that question about Rachmaninoff just to remind everyone who the boss is, but you generally let your weaker peers fight for second best. 

Anyway, don't pretend like you didn't cheat on a few of those questions...yeah, I'm looking at you, USC. You know what I'm talking about, the 'ol "mouth the answer right as the guy on TV says it, pretending like you knew it before but just wanted the pleasure of feeling like you came to the realization of that answer at the same exact time as this ridiculous dude with the encyclopedic brain" maneuver. We've all done it. Hey, I've done it, and I'm not proud of it but dangit not getting a single question before Trebek takes you into that first mid-round commercial break is not a good look, man.