Preseason AP college football poll: How Amie Just voted

Well, ready or not, the Associated Press Top 25 poll is back. And, once again, yours truly is a voting panel member.

A refresher: there are 62 voters on the panel. There’s at least one voter from each state that has an FBS team and a handful of national folks. For the state of Nebraska, there’s one voter.

Each week, I’ll break down my ballot compared with the actual Top 25 and write on some pressing topics.

Without further ado, here’s my preseason ballot.

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Oregon
5. Mississippi
6. Notre Dame
7. Alabama
8. Missouri
9. Michigan
10. Florida State
11. Penn State
12. Utah
13. LSU
14. Tennessee
15. Clemson
16. Kansas State
17. Oklahoma
18. Oklahoma State
19. Arizona
20. Louisville
21. Kansas
22. Miami
23. USC
24. Texas A&M
25. NC State

And the actual AP Top 25:

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Texas
4. Oregon
5. Alabama
6. Mississippi
7. Notre Dame
8. Penn State
9. Michigan
10. Florida State
11. Missouri
12. Utah
13. LSU
14. Clemson
15. Tennessee
16. Oklahoma
17. Oklahoma State
18. Kansas State
19. Miami
20. Texas A&M
21. Arizona
22. Kansas
23. USC
24. NC State
25. Iowa

Trending down: After being the national runners-up last year, the Washington Huskies only received 23 votes in the preseason poll. Others that finished in the AP Top 25 but didn’t crack this year’s preseason poll: Louisville, SMU, Liberty.

Quirks: I didn’t rank Iowa, but the Hawkeyes came in at No. 25.

Extreme picks: I had Louisville at No. 20, and the Cardinals were the first team out of the Top 25.

Also: While I didn’t have Nebraska on my ballot, two pollsters did. One had the Huskers at No. 14 (!!!!) and another had them at No. 22.

Yeah, the actual poll had Texas A&M at No. 20, while I had them at No. 24 — which, felt right to me. Ranking the Aggies that high feels wrong to me, but maybe the rest of the voters know something I don’t.

Texas A&M is in Year 1 under Mike Elko, and looking around the rest of my ballot, you see that most of the teams with new coaches (Alabama, Michigan, Penn State’s OC, Iowa’s OC, Washington) are a little (or a lot) lower than what you’d think from last year. (Arizona is the one exception where I have a team with a new head coach higher than the poll, but I like where Arizona’s roster stands.)

That goes into my preseason philosophy. How do we gauge something definitively when there are so many question marks and variables? And when there are no games to go off of? I look at consistency right now.

The Cardinals really surprised folks last year in Jeff Brohm’s first season, and I think they could be really good again.

The Cardinals’ defense returns seven starters from last season, including defensive lineman Ashton Gillotte, who could really be something special. Last year’s defense held teams to just 21 points per game. That was good enough for No. 33 nationwide. Not too shabby. 

The offense has some questions, only returning three starters, but the Cardinals were really active in the transfer portal there — bringing in guys like Texas Tech transfer Tyler Shough, Miami running back Don Chaney and Alabama receiver Ja’Corey Brooks. 

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think anyone should count these guys out in 2024.

Yeah, this was a tough call for me. I think of Georgia and Ohio State as 1A and 1B rather than 1 and 2. I genuinely believe that they’ll meet up in the national championship game and that’s where this will get decided once and for all.

But maybe it gets decided earlier than that.

Georgia opens the season with Clemson on Aug. 31 and has to face Alabama in Tuscaloosa right out of the gate for conference play on Sept. 28. That’s two massive tests before the calendar flips to October.

Ohio State, meanwhile, has a cakewalk in comparison through the early stages of the season. The Buckeyes host the Hawkeyes on Oct. 5 as their first tough came and then go out to Eugene for what I believe will be the first of two, if not three, meetings for them this season.

But as the old cliche goes… the games are played for a reason.

Yep. I have zero concerns about Iowa’s defense. The Hawkeyes return eight starters on that side of the ball and Phil Parker is a mastermind.

However, I have zero confidence in Iowa’s offense right now. How will Cade McNamara bounce back? And, most importantly, how will the offense look under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester? I’m not convinced that things will be better.

And then, special teams-wise, having to replace their MVP in Tory Taylor? Guys like that don’t grow on trees.

I, as mentioned above, did not rank Nebraska in the preseason. But two people did. If the Huskers come out in Week 1 and beat the brakes off UTEP and then do the same against Colorado, I think Nebraska will at least sniff the Top 25 after Week 2.

Now, if Nebraska rolls through the next phase of the schedule — which is entirely possible, considering it’s vs. Northern Iowa, vs. Illinois, at Purdue, vs. Rutgers and at Indiana — the sky’s the limit for the Huskers. If they are actually 7-0 heading into Ohio State week, I could see Nebraska reaching the 11-16 range.

For context, Nebraska hasn’t been ranked at all since 2019 and hasn’t been higher than No. 15 since 2016. In 2016, Nebraska started 7-0 and rose to No. 7 ahead of their Oct. 29 game against No. 11 Wisconsin.