2007 Preseason Rankings Comparison
Updated 8/18/07

According to the sources listed below, Southern California is a unanimous pick to win the 2007 college football national title. The only teams to receive second-place predictions are LSU, Texas and West Virginia. Thirty-nine teams appear at least once in the rankings that we compare in this chart. Last year's champ, Florida, ranks no higher than 3rd. Ohio State, which lost to the Gators in the 2006 championship game, rates no higher than 5th.

The AP poll, though no longer a part of the BCS, still releases a preseason poll and regular weekly rankings. It could determine a number one team independent of the BCS. The Harris Interactive Poll, which replaced the AP in the BCS in 2005, will continue in that roll this year. Harris will not release its first rankings until September 23.

There are often amazing similarities between the preseason "voter polls" (coaches, Harris, AP) and the "computer rankings". Those similarities would seemingly defy logic. After all, there is an inherent difference between a "poll" and a "preseason magazine prediction". The magazines are picking where they think the teams will be at the end of the year. The polls are determining where the teams should be ranked to begin the year. The Congrove Computer Rankings (CCR) actually release one of each method. The CCR Preseason Rankings are the "projections" of what the rankings will look like at the end of the regular season, and the CCR Current Rankings are how the teams supposedly stack-up on day one of the season.

Here is a sampling of some of the preseason rankings, listed in alphabetical order of the teams that appeared on at least one published Top 25 list.