Which Team Should Be Ranked #1? Preseason AP Poll Top 25 Reactions & College Football Power Rankings

Brett McMurphy's Top 5 College Football Teams the 2024 college football season is just around the corner so I'm joined by college football Insider Brett McMurphy and betting analyst Colin Wilson to discuss their preseason rankings and if you don't already know Brett McMurphy is an AP voter his his voting and rankings are made public every single week on The Action Network website and to counter Colin Wilson is in charge of creating our weekly power ratings here at Action Network trying to accurately judge the true quality of a team without any public perception involved so this is how it's going to work we're going to go through everybody's Brett's and Collins top 25 we're going to break down some of the interesting teams like all Miss who they may have at number one because there's a little bit of a difference there and then maybe a sleeper team to make the college football playoffs so let's start with Brett McMurphy's top five and if you didn't notice by looking at the AP Top 25 entering this season there's a little one next to Oregon's name and that is Mr McMurphy he has the Ducks led by Oklahoma transfer Dylan Gabriel at top the college football ranks next up Georgia at number two the favorites to win the national championship followed by Ohio State Texas and Bam rounding out the top five now Brett I do want to ask you I want you to explain to the viewers cuz you're the only one here among all the AP voters with Oregon in that number one spot I love being different I love the look here and I think there's a real argument to be made that the Ducks are the most talented team in the country so please tell me more it wasn't a it wasn't basically I want to do something different you can make an argument for Georgia and Ohio State I just really like what Dan lanning's doing in Oregon he talked at Big 10 media days about how important the trenches are Oregon's going to have one of the best offensive and defensive lines in the country which is imperative to compete for a national championship he's got the SEC background coming from Georgia he knows what it takes I know it's easy to say well if you don't include a couple of games last year look at what they would have done but anyway I'm going to say if you don't include their two games against Washington three-point losses which they could have easily won but they didn't you look at their other 12 wins they had an average winning margin of 32 points they outgained the opponents by 250 yards they simply do dominated I think that continues this year look they don't even have to win the Big 10 they'll be in the playoff they get Ohio State and Eugene in mid October that will be a monster game but I just like Oregon overall they've got returning starters top six recruiting class I like what they do offensively and like what Lanning told me in Indianapolis we're going to do something different I don't know if the big 10's ready for us but we're going to bring something different to the Big 10 combine that all together and that's why the Ducks are number one on my AP ballot right the Oregon doesn't lose too much year-over-year obviously Bon Nick's out but they replace that with someone just as good as him maybe a little bit better Dylan Gabriel we'll see how that goes but obviously Brett going Oregon number one Collins power ratings is does not have Oregon number one they in fact and if we take a look Collin Wilson's Top 5 College Football Teams they have Georgia the Bulldogs coming in at number one Ohio State also enters the season higher than Oregon followed by Penn State and or Texas at number four and Penn State rounding out the top five maybe James Franklin can finally make the cfp thanks to that expansion over there in the college football playoffs but Colin I do want to ask you about your top five how you got these five in particular and why you have the bulldog and even Ohio State ahead of Oregon yeah I mean Georgia is the best team in the nation from a power rating perspective I think any odds maker out there would tell you that it doesn't matter they'd be two and a half Point favorites against Ohio State on a neutral right now they'd be 58 and a half Point favorites over Kennesaw State the worst team in FBS I don't really have a problem with Brett taking Oregon number one I would make that game Georgia minus four on a neutral and I would probably end up betting the Ducks because they do have it in the trench they're ready for Big 10 play and they are one of maybe three or four teams that have the most electric set of skill players at wide receiver and at running back and then you know I I don't really have a problem with Alabama being in Brett's top five they're sixth than mine I make them a half point off of Pinn state so if they played each other on a neutral it would essentially be a pick them and I think I'm one of the higher you know people in the entire Market that is high on Alabama a lot of people think there's going to be a drop off and I don't yeah I'm curious to see what happens with Alabama I like milro and I think the sophomore the next year leap that he can make is going to be a big one here but it'll be interesting to see how this top five rounds out how they end up finishing and obviously James Franklin if he can beat the Ohio States and the michigans of the world because he's proven he's been unable to do that year overy year but let's take a look at Brett's next top 10 now so from the six to the 15 range the public Darlings entering the season it feels like everybody is on Old Miss in some sort of fashion they're coming in at number six Jackson darts a highman hopeful and uh everyone seems to be sipping that lane kein juice thanks to a star studed transfer class Penn State coming in at number seven and perhaps most notable from the list Miami is the first team out of the ACC at number eight Clemson and Florida State sit at 13 and 15th respectively and Brett I want to ask you Where Should Ole Miss Rank? a little bit more about ol miss it it feels fair that Dart has a realistic shot at winning the Heisman they obviously come in with the number one transfer class in the country I know everyone's so in on them they haven't been a Lin has proven he hasn't been able to beat you know the big dogs of the SEC yet but why do you have them sixth in particular and do you see them potentially giving them Alabama and Georgia a run for their money I mean Charlie the talents there the question is can they live up to the expectations right uh kin is already borrowing a phrase from uh Nick Sabin about rat poison Old Miss has never had these high of expectations they're coming off a 10- win season the last coach that won back-to-back 10- win Seasons they named the Stadium after him John vot so this is unprecedented waters for the rebels you mentioned Jackson D I obviously that's key for Old Miss I think why I've got them as high as I do is you mentioned the transfers they bring in they bring in 11 transfers that were starters at other power five schools how dides how do those guys mesh in with the current guys I think that's the key uh I think they have a real chance to compete with Alabama with Georgia you throw in Texas there and possibly get to an SEC title game but it is a real thing to kind of it's the cliche that you're the hunted not the hunter how will they respond to this when they're when everyone's coming at them when they're getting everyone's best shot and also you add in the new SEC with adding Oklahoma Texas suddenly you look at Old Miss schedule and now they're besides playing LSU and Georgia they also have Oklahoma on the schedule so the schedule's a lot tougher but certainly this is the most most talented team that kein has had in Oxford right and obviously Dart Manning that quarterback hasman hopeful and it'll be interesting if Lane kin can get them deep in the cfp we might get the L kein training facility next door to that field but Colin I want to ask you you're not without looking at your next 10 right now all Miss is outside of your top 10 in the power ratings why are they in particularly missing the cut here and why do you have them outside I think this is the fun of an AP Top 25 vote in power ratings because in a power rating world you could be seven spots from another you know from another position say fourth and you could only be two points on the field it would matter from an oddsmaker perspective and that's what we have here with Old Miss I have them exactly tied with with Iowa State I have them a half Point behind Ninth Place team Florida State so it's very even right there and I will remind everybody that the portal does not win championships for teams there is I mean there was a couple of Voters in the AP that put them number four I mean that is lofty expectations and you go back and look at USC with Caleb Williams you look at LSU pulling Jaden Daniels and all the weapons that those teams put around them those teams didn't win conference championships those teams didn't win national championships what they do the transfer portal is good for building depth it's not good for building championships but I do I mean Old Miss has to close the gap here on Georgia they just lost by 35 points the Bulldogs put up a 50 Burger on them last year these are the same coaching stabs and yes Jackson Dart is still the same quarterback is going to have to look at the Bulldogs at some point and I think one important thing about Jackson Dart is I think he is the best bet of this whole entire Old Miss portfolio that you could bet on from win totals to conference championships Jackson Dart if they are to make 10 wins and they are to make the playoff for Old Miss he should have a seat in New York as at least a very strong Contender to win the Heisman and the reason is because of how much weapons that he has around him some of the most ridiculous skills of any of the you could get in the portal he has at wide receiver uh and also with Jackson Dart last year his efficiency on passes from 10 to 19 yards and in a crowded pocket exploded he is light years ahead of where he start started off at USC so if Jackson Dart continues that progression he is absolutely going to have a seat in New York at the end of the season yeah you you stole the qu the followup question right out of my my mouth I was going to ask you is if you want to bet into this om Miss if you want to bet into the potential of this team is it looking at Jackson Dart and it really does feel like that their offense is shaping up to be one of the most dynamic in all of college football I'm going to be dabbling in some Jackson Dart Heisman Futures maybe some milro to I I think whatever team comes out of the SEC uh a lot of them are going to have a seat in New York but let's look at Collins's next top 10 I hinted at all Miss not making the top 10 let's take a look Alabama comes in at number six followed by your defending national champions Michigan at number seven I mentioned Brett having Miami at 8 Florida state is his power ratings number one ACC school that's coming in at number n and then Clemson in the 15 Miami didn't even make that top 15 this first go around Colin I you mentioned the beauty of a PO and the power ratings and how there can be so many Where Should Michigan Rank? differences Michigan is the team that first comes to mind when I look at your list they're number seven we'll talk about where Brett has them just in a little bit but it seems like no Harbaugh no JJ McCarthy the national championship team a lot of them are gone they don't even have a starting quarterback named yet they're still figuring that all out why Michigan in the top 10 well at the end of last season when they won the National Championship they were evenly power rated with Georgia if they would have played Georgia it would have been a neutral game it would have been a pickup and so you have to see what we what did we do in the offseason well we docked them six points on their power rating over the offseason that was due to a lot of losses on the offensive side of the ball little bit of coordinator changes coming in with wink Martell as the DC but that doesn't change scheme and it's not going to change Personnel on either side of the ball especially with shiron Moore being the head coach now so what you're really the public perception is this team doesn't have a quarterback while that's true they still have a vicious Rush attack on the ground they still have a defensive line that is one of the best in the nation it may be rotating names that you haven't seen before but it's still good old Michigan that's produced names like Aiden Hutchinson and put them into the NFL and so the perception is yes we docked them six points we moved them down but not extreme enough to where we're going to say that you know they're a a 15 or 20 or 25 team because when you get to that point in the power ratings you're looking at teams like Oklahoma State and Auburn and SMU and that is not where Michigan is they are much higher from a power rating perspective well I'm going to kick it right to Brett then because you know without giving away the rest of his rankings Brett you have Michigan at 17th in your AP poll why do you have them so much lower than say power ratings at seventh here uh I'm smarter than Colin basically that's the main reason uh you know look what Colin says is 100% true but there's a lot of things you have to take into consideration they yeah they lost some players they lost 13 players to the NFL draft they lost Harbaugh they are running the same offense they don't have have the same Talent there is questions at quarterback they and the way Colin described them and I've heard other people describe them this way great defense great defense we don't know what they're going to do offensively kind of reminds me of Iowa last year I don't think they're going to be that uh offensively challenged but I they are going to struggle their win total opened up nine nine and a half looking at their schedule they're automatically underdogs in three games toss-ups and two or three more I think there's going to be a big drop I think it's going to be similar to TCU um last year coming off the national title appearance and also you know while what's going on with the NCA notice of allegations regarding not the Spy gate but uh illegal recruiting During the covid period basically every current member on the staff has been named in that thing that's not going to impact them dayto day but I think once the season wears on and they start suffering some losses and then kind of people realize hey this is going to be a different Michigan team I think that's going to weigh on them and it's going to impact them and I think all that just snowballs into the fact that I don't think Michigan's a top top 10 team there's in the last 20 years there's been at least one team every year except one that started in the top 10 ranked in the top 10 finished the year unranked I think Michigan could be that team yeah it's going to be interesting to see uh what happens here and obviously Circle that week two matchup but I will say you know you mentioned the Michigan quarterback problems I don't think they're going to be as bad is Iowa I don't think there's going to be like a Craigslist ad saying we need someone to come over and Lead this team to play quarterback CU that's close to what Iowa was doing last year but I talked about Michigan being outside of Brett's top 15 let's take a look at the rest of his rankings here and Oklahoma has taken the number 16 Brett McMurphy's Full Top 25 College Football Rankings spot followed by Michigan at 17 Tennessee 18 Iowa 19 you can look read the rest but the other team that I do want to Circle here LSU at number 20 and mostly because why I Circle them in particular here is another going back to Collins uh rankings as well LSU has such a stark difference between you two Brett you have him at 20th Colin you have them in the top 10 um Brett I'm curious about you with this one obviously they have to replace both their coordinators Jaden Daniels is out as quarterback now comes in nus Meer is that what kind of led to their drop off is that you just don't know if they're going to fully take that next step again yeah that's part of it and look I know colins's really high on on the nus bus but I think there is going to be some drop there and you're replacing both coordinators that's going to be a challenge um it this doesn't come into where I rank people but just looking at their schedule you know we get to the end of the year you know they're going to be fortunate I think to have eight wins USC Miss A&M Alabama Florida and Oklahoma you know certainly those are all monster games we'll have to see how they how they end up coming out the other end look the good news for LSU is you look at Brian Kelly's history and everywhere he's been before as a head coach uh Central Michigan Cincinnati Notre Dame what's happened in year three he has had unbelievable success compared with the rest of his career he's gone 33 and five in those third year seasons and he told me in Dallas that he actually believes this team has a lot of similarities to some of these other teams that had a great deal of success in year three so I think that's a positive maybe I'm under valuing them a little bit but I just think you know losing the coordinators and obviously Daniels is is going to be tough because LSU won a lot of shootouts last year they just outscored people with Daniels I don't know if they can do that initially with NES Meyer in there replacing Daniels and Colin I'll kick it right to you Kelly said this is the deepest team they've had in years despite you know losing the Heisman winner under Center doesn't seem like the power Ries in particular are down on LSU despite the coordinator changes and the quarterback change yeah I mean LSU took home positive power rating changes in the offseason and I it was a team that I thought was going to take negative bumps and they didn't when you go into the stats on defense they return more than 80% of their pass breakups and stops which is one of the most critical categories of stats inside a PFF and when you give them a little bump because of that then you go and visit the coordinator changes and you say well on offense offensively they just promoted from within as Mike Den Brock left and went to Notre Dame they're running the exact same offense they're just going to tweak it a little bit on the Run pass ratio with nus Meer under Center instead of Jaden Daniels and then you go on the defensive side and I have no love for Missouri's defensive coordinator Blake Baker making his way down to Baton Rouge I had problems with a lot of things on the Missouri defense it was very leaky especially in the Red Zone but where was the bar on this LSU team last year they were giving up 40 to everybody on their schedule it was an Abomination the bar is so low that even Blake Baker from Missouri can get over it and then as as many people like bark about the power ratings I would make LSU and USC who were playing each other in the very first game of the season I would make it four and a half it's six in the market now in favor of s in favor of LSU so we we are right there with where the odds makers make it yeah this is the beauty of looking at the how the power ratings differ from how the public and the AP poll differs as well but let's take a look at colins's rest of his top 25 list Collin Wilson's Top 25 College Football Power Rankings um you mention USC they come in at 19th here Miami who Brett is very high on it 21st and of course his Cowboys Oklahoma State down at 22 followed by Kansas Louisville and Auburn rounding out that top 25 on his power ratings here but Colin and Brett I'm going to ask each of you a question Colin you're going to go first a sleeper team to make the college football playoffs you in particular Colin are targeting a team that's not even on that full screen we just showed right SMU plus 1100 11 to1 on the ponies joining the ACC look the Mustangs are going to be favored by double dig digits nearly double digits in 10 games that is amazing uh I mean this is one of the softest schedules in the nation for a power Conference team they Dodge just about anybody that's heavy there is a little bit of a struggle in the middle of the schedule with Florida State and Louisville I don't expect them to beat them because there's such a mismatch in the trench with the size and the experience but SMU and Rett Lashley have been hitting the portal hard for two years to build this team they are electric on offense they were top 10 in everything in defense despite the competition last year uh you know so 10 wins is their ceiling nine wins I think is I mean I would play their over I think their over has way more room to run there is a lot of value on them to win the ACC and 11 to1 to make the playoff you're 10- win team in the ACC you're making the playoff and obviously just a reminder go listen to the bboc podcast cuz Colin Stucky all the guys over there have been breaking down conference by conference subscribe to our new YouTube channel college football basketball college only over there so right now they're all chugging through all the conference previews but Brett take us home with your sleeper to make the college football playoff well I mean based on my ballot they're not a sleeper but based on everybody else's opinion they are sleeper and that's Miami I have them ranked number eight I have them ranked higher than anybody I ranked Oregon higher than anybody I ranked Miami ranked higher than anybody at the end of the year we can come back on here and you can tell me what a genius I am look I'm drinking the Kool-Aid with the Hurricanes I know we can talk about all the late game issues with Mario Christal at Miami and that or again but forget about that for a second they brought in the best quarterback running back transfer Duo and cam Ward and Damen Martinez from the two pack conference they also are loaded in the trenches kind of like Oregon Chris Ball is an offensive line guy he told me this is the best offensive line they've had since he's been at Miami another comparison is chrisal kind of believes that this kind of has the same Vibe the same feel that he had in year three at Oregon first year as a defensive coordinator then two years as a head coach what happened his 30-year at Oran 12 wins won the Rose Bowl I think they can have the same type of success this year I think it would be a dis huge huge disappointment if they don't get the playoff I think winning the ACC title is is a is a possibility which it's ironic to say because Miami's been in the ACC 21 years and they've got as many ACC titles as everybody doing the show right now zero think this is finally the year they break through they are so talented they've made a lot of gains in the transfer portal and the schedule sets up nicely the key for Miami I don't care that it's a non-conference game they have to win at Florida if they don't win at Florida then the sky is falling and everything collapses if they get past Florida this schedule sets up great they have a tricky trip at Virginia Tech in September and then back to back home games against Louisville and FSU so they should be able to have a successful season key word is should and will the canes finally deliver in just a couple weeks we'll have a check-in we'll be able to see if the sky is falling if your sleeper teams already just completely out of that top 25 falling down but also interesting to note you mentioned cam ward in the transfer him coming over to Miami we talked about Jackson Dart in the ceiling of Old Miss could be a potential Heisman look for cam Ward as well if Miami is able to live up to the expectations that Brett sets but this is the beauty of the AP pole the power ratings you get to see the differences here teams like Michigan teams like Old Miss they come in a little bit different and only time will tell so that wraps up our big or Brett and Collins power preseason rankings you can check out every week they have BR the AP poll coling the power ratings on the action network.com and also make sure to like this video subscribe to the new bboc YouTube channel and tune in every week to hear from both Brett and Colin on the bboc podcast have a great day for