ESPN's Rece Davis has a Surprising College Football Ranking, Still "Defaults" to UGA Football

all right the AP poll ballots are now public ree Davis ESPN a longtime college football reporter and anchor for the the major News network has released his top 10 Rel or it you can see his top 10 you can see everybody's voted for he has George at one Ohio C at 2 that was a very popular one too only a couple people had something different than that I I saw and I noticed a couple people had Oregon ranked higher than one of those teams where someone had Oregon ranked number one but ree Davis talked about a little bit about his projections for the season on a recent college game day podcast uh he did that with Pete themill they had differing opinions on who is going to be the number one team heading into the college fo playoff and something that's very exciting about this year is that we get to New right you ever seen How I Met Your Mother um it's one of my favorite comedy shows Barney Stinson he he has all these rules he says new is always better right and I like to joke around with that but sometimes it's true that new is better it's not always better we think that the college the 12 team college football has potential to be better but what I do know about new is new is exciting and new is different and that's what you get in this 2024 college football season you we're getting to experience something that we didn't before a regular season that it's going to feature some more big matchups with big 10 expanding the SEC expanding letting in Texas and Oklahoma what is resulting in is more big matchups it's going to result in more of those teams probably making a playoff it's going to result in you know is the 12 team playoff going to be competitive yes is it going to be as competitive as the four the four wasn't super competitive in most of the years right they the rose bull that Georgia played against Oklahoma the peach bow like those those were less common than the blowouts in the semi-final game so I don't know quite yet how it's going to be as this month month and a half long you know monish Long college football playoff where 12 teams involved I don't know how competitive it's going to be I think there's definitely going to be a fair share of blowouts but it is going to be new and more teams are going to have a chance to bring home that trophy at the end of the day and at the like I said at the end of the day it's a little bit more of a difficult path for Georgia it's a more difficult path for Alabama these teams that have been penciling themselves into college playoffs competing at the highest level well now they've got to deal with the regular season it's a little bit more difficult and then when they do get to the end it's going to take at least one more win probably two more wins to get to the end to get to where you're fighting for that trophy so let's talk a little bit about what ree Davis had to say Ryan Curley from dog post talking about Rees Davis and his predictions I've always always a nice guy reys if if you remember me if you recognize me tip of my cap I think he's done a really good job he's one of my favorite media people out there uh hope that I'm one of your favorite media people out there but I I think that he does do a good job of being levelheaded and talking about it maybe he does too good of a job of being levelheaded because something I disagreed about with him is I think he had Alabama too low in his rankings so just previewing his top 10 heading into the season and then I'll discuss a little bit of his college football playoffs predictions but he has Georgia one Ohio State 2 Texas three Oregon four it's pretty common you ask me I put Oregon ahead of Texas he's go Miss five he had Florida State at 6 Alabama at 7 Notre Dame at 8 Missouri 9 Penn State 10 that 8 through 10 pretty common Florida State common to be around that top 10 Mark I do think Alabama's a better team than Florida State this year I don't think Florida State's as good as last year's Florida State team and before those injuries it was a team that was deserving of being in the college fo playoff you get those injuries you get that Travis H or Jordan Travis you get that Jordan Travis season and Andre it's a different conversation right and it was a team that to me was a borderline top four even as undefeated with the injuries just wasn't a top four team in my opinion I think that Florida State takes a slight step back this year I do think that Mike norell is one of the best coaches in college football but I'm a little surprised that ree Davis has him at six especi he's an Alabama alone and he knows what the deal is with this Alabama team something that I'm noticing is becoming a common theme is people are taking the rat poison that Nick Sabin is throwing out there and maybe Rees Davis is feeding into that a little bit when he ranks Alabama number seven to me Alabama has a legitimate case to be a top five team has a legitimate case to be the second best team in the SEC assuming that George is number one I'm not 100% sold on Texas yet as having that title Pete daml is right uh and that's who does this college football college game day podcast with ree Davis and Pete DL has Texas as the number one seed heading into the cultural FL so fast forward to predictions in December right he thinks that Texas will win the the conference they'll be the number one seed look most of these year if if the becomes some of this more long term obviously we're only guaranteed to have it for two seasons I think they're going to end up expanding if we're being honest more games equals more money equals more viewers equals more more more and we're greedy we're a greedy uh country we're greedy people and that extends to college football fans and workers right so as long as we have the 12 though I I just think that I don't understand why we're already I I sidetracked myself talking about expanding to 14 I don't understand why we're already trying to expand when we haven't seen the 12 but as long as we have the 12 I think that and probably the 14 and just whatever it ends up expanding to the championship is probably going to be the number one seed heading into the college ball Playoff most years unless you get a dominant Ohio State you're a dominant Big 10 right maybe you know maybe in Oklahoma state has just just blows everybody out and they beat an SEC team in a not non-conference game I don't know but most of the time I think it's going to be an SEC team that ends up being that number one seed well re Davis predicts that it'll be Georgia despite the tough schedule I'll read a little bit of the quotes that he had from that Pete Dill thinks it'll be he and if you don't know who he is he works for ESP he's one of their college football writers insiders he's gotten some more screen time over the last couple of years he's starting to become more of a staple as someone that they put on air he thinks it'll be Texas I don't think it's going to be Texas it's just my prediction I think that Texas will be a college football playoff team I'm just a little lower on them than the general public seems I think they're probably more like the five or the six versus the three or the four I just think that especially now with the injury to both of their their rb1 and their rb2 we saw how much that hurt Georgia right obviously how much did it hurt Georgia when they were 13- one orange bull Champions well it hurt them getting in the playoff for sure it's one of the aspects that they struggled with last year was The Run game Texas offense is going through a lot of transition with its with its weapons on the outside yeah I do think that losing your top two running backs is going to hurt your offense I think it's going to be tough to adjust to this what ree Davis a couple of the things he had to say Georgia's had a much much more difficult schedule than Texas they have to go to Texas play their schedule is difficult enough especially the road schedule that they can play well and lose they don't have to show up flat necessarily because they have some challenges but a lot of confidence in this team Georg is the anti- schedule pick this is the belief that if you were good enough you'll win the games anyway if you're powerful enough you'll win the games anyway George has to go to Alabama Texas Old Miss and they've got Tennessee at home yet I'm still defaulting to who I think the best team is that's kind of difference right you used to be Alabama where you defaulted to I think the best team I think they're just going to win all these games and now that's becoming Georgia right when I got to talk to Reese back in November this was uh the Friday before the Old Miss game college game day was in town so he was in town we got to speak a little bit and he said Georgia is building an unprecedented Dynasty obviously he said that before what transpired in the SEC Championship and Georgia not making it but I don't think that he would go back on that statement if I had to predict another thing um that he had to say about Georgia was sort of the institutional success that George has had as a football program knowing how to win probably a bit of frustration from last year because Michigan proved to be the best team because Georgia wasn't in the field for most of the season if not all you could easily make the argument that Georgia was the best team and that's that's one of the biggest things about last year right that is going to get shored up with an expanded playoff if you get into the situation like last year where someone snubbed for it's just not going to happen anymore the issue that we ran into it felt like last year was the first time we needed an expanded playoff because yeah there were more than four teams that had an argument and it is hard to decide who the best four teams are because if you're not doing it with a computer and it's a group of people different people are going to have different opinions and there were all sorts of different opinions some people thought Florida State deserved it some people thought Georgia deserved it some people thought they got it right with Texas and Alabama as a three and the four but at the end of the day those arguments aren't going to matter as much it'll just be about seeding and we just we just won't have that because it's true what R said when you think about last season who did everyone think was the best team for most of the Year some people thought it was Michigan Michigan wins the championship congratulations to Michigan I don't think it would have been as easy if Georgia was in the playoff and we do you know up until they lost Alabama they were the consensus number one in college football and until they lose this year unless they just don't look as great and Ohio State looks better until they lose this year that's not going to change why we're human and we default to certain things the wording that ree Davis said defaulting George's default is to win right now George's default right now among people people's default is to assume that George is number one is to assume that George has the best chances to do this and do that and that's bleeding into their players you get that with Carson Beck now too also being number one in college football odds but I do think it was interesting to see some of the things that he had to say about heading into this college football season thought his top 10 was a little bit weird let me know what you think down in the comments and thank you for watching