College Football Season Preview: Conference Power Rankings, Most dangerous G5 teams | CBS Sports

anywhere, any time, all the tim. Welcome to CBS sports HQ, presented by AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Happy to be alongside Haley Sutton I'm Tommy Tran. Happy Friday folks. We are just over a week away from the start of the college football season. So close to week zero. Time to get ready, Haley. It kind of feels like the preseason in the NFL where it's like, yay, football is back! But it is week zero, so we've got to keep that perspective as well. But building on that, Tommy, CBS is now the home for all things Big Ten football, so we can expect to see a lot of stuff coming out of the conference here on HQ, as well as over on the network. We've got a new pregame show coming on Saturdays, so that will be exciting. But in terms of the conference power rankings ahead of 2024, here's what they look like. The SEC and the Big Ten, of course taking over those top two spots. This list, by the way, you can find a full breakdown on CBS sports.com. We just put out an article about all the details there. So SEC big ten. As far as the group of five goes, this is where things get interesting. Because remember the expanded college Football Playoff is set to get underway this year. And some of these teams Memphis, South Florida, even Liberty could be pushing to make some noise when it comes to the playoffs. So a lot to keep our eye on as football season quickly approaches. So to be the best, you got to bring the best. And we've got two of our college football best, Chip Patterson and Tom Fanelli joining us from the cover three podcast. Guys, let's start at the top there. When it comes to the most dangerous teams in that group of five. Chip, I'll start with you here. Who has your attention in that middle tier of teams? It's Boise State. I think that Boise State, if they run at their peak, is a team that you could drop them in the big 12 and they might not be running with Utah, but they wouldn't be too far behind you. Drop them in the ACC they might not be there with Florida State, but they wouldn't be too far behind. And a lot of this comes down to the fact that they have one of the best running backs in the entire country in Ashton Jeanty, and they already went through the fires of the coaching transition of having to fire Andy Avalos in the middle of the year. You promote Spencer Danielson, the team buys in, they get hot, they go on a run and boom, they end up as Mountain West champions. Now they bring back a lot of experience on the defensive side of the football. And the real X-Factor here is whether Malachi Nelson, the former five star prospect who initially was at USC and transferred out of LA. If he's able to recapture that five star pedigree, well, then I think that we will see Boise State be the most dangerous of these teams outside of the power conferences. You know, Boise State is a it's a good choice. It's not the best choice. They are not the most dangerous group of five team. I think if you want to look at it from a perspective of which one of these teams is most likely to reach the playoffs, then you have to go with Liberty because Liberty plays in the easiest conference and it's much better than everybody else in the league. But we saw what happened to Liberty last year when they faced Oregon in a bowl game. I'm approaching this from an angle of which one of these teams could not only make the playoffs, but possibly win a game in it. And I think if you're taking that approach, you have to go with the Memphis Tigers coming out of the American Athletic Conference. They are one of the best teams in the league. They are my pick to win the league and the difference for me between them and Boise, chip is the quarterback situation. You talked about Malachi Nelson and the question somewhat surrounding him right now. There are no questions at the quarterback position when it comes to the Tigers. And I think overall roster wise, this is a team that's more talented than most everybody else in the group of five. So if the Tigers get to the playoffs and they end up playing that number 12 seed, I think they've got a chance to pull off the upset. I think they're a good team that's capable of putting up points in a hurry, and that's always difficult to contend with. Yeah. Chip talked about the returners for Boise State. Memphis has 17 returners from that ten win team last year. And of course all eyes will be on their quarterback Seth Henigan. Let's talk about maybe some teams that will be sleepers because I feel like during the football season, we always get to that point where it's like, oh my gosh, this team is so impressive at this point of the year where did they come from? So let's get ahead of the curve here guys. Tom I'll come to you first here. Give us your biggest sleeper team to pay attention to in the group of five in the group of five, I would have to say UNLV is a team that is worth looking at. Because if you look at what happened last year, they exceeded expectations and they lost Jayden Maiava, their quarterback, to USC as a transfer. He's going there to back it up. So there are questions surrounding that. But I think the reason the team was so excellent last year wasn't just my Ava as much as it was Barry Odom taking over the program and really kind of building up that defense and their style of play in a mountain West League. That was very tough. And I think that because Ava left for USC, everybody's kind of sleeping on the run and rebels going into 2024, but to me, they're a team that in a mountain West where there's Boise State, a lot of question marks afterwards, I think the Runnin Rebels have a chance to kind of make some noise and shock a lot of people this year. So if I was going for a sleeper from the Mountain West, I wouldn't look any further than Vegas because, you know, anything can happen in Vegas, right? Anything can happen. Indeed, if we go big picture here, though, in terms of the entire playoff here, the sleeper teams within college football. Tom, who would you say is the sleeper that we should be keeping our eye on? The biggest one outside? I would say Oklahoma State. If you look at the big 12, like, we have no idea who's going to win this league, I know that we had to put in our expert picks last week for our preview on CBS sports.com and Utah, and Kansas State were the most popular picks. But when you look at the league as a whole, there really isn't an obvious option to win the league. It's like everybody at the top is pretty much the same team that might be separated by a few points, and I just look at the long term success that Mike Gundy has had with the Oklahoma State program and the consistency, and I feel like we're sleeping a little bit on the Cowboys. Let's not forget, this team was in the big 12 championship not too long ago. And if they have the same kind of season that they typically do, there's a very good chance that they'll get to the big 12 Championship again in 2024. And we know that with automatic berths for the power four conference champs, this is an Oklahoma State team that's got a realistic shot to reach the playoffs. Now can they do much damage when they get there? I don't know, but I think they can get there. And most people aren't talking about it too much. Look it's crazy to say that Hollywood is under the radar or that a national title program like USC is under the radar. But if you were to look at the Las Vegas odds, and if you were to look at the preseason polls, USC is flying below the radar. We've all seemingly drawn a line under those top four teams. Of course, being Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and Michigan, and just assumed there's a big drop off after that. Ignoring Lincoln, Riley and all of his College Football Playoff appearances, ignoring that little bit that we've seen. Small sample size of Miller Moss, six touchdowns in the Holiday Bowl win and maybe overlooking but not ignoring some of the defensive staff changes that have happened when we had Lincoln Riley with us on the cover three podcast at Big Ten Media Days. You know, he spoke a lot about the mentality that he wanted out of his defense. You know, the hires that he made. I think I'm very impressed by the buzz coming out of fall camp. Suggests that they might be able to show that kind of improvement and to take it back to the Oklahoma days. I mean, he just needed those Sooners defenses to be okay, to be able to make the College Football Playoff and so we're just writing off USC because the finish to last season was so underwhelming, and they lost the Heisman Trophy winner in Caleb Williams. But I do think that if you're looking for a team that might jump ahead of a Michigan or a Penn State and be that third or fourth team from the Big Ten, I think USC might be a good option. All right. So we've got our sleeper team in the group of five. We've got our sleeper team to sneak into the college football Playoff. Let's put it all together here and talk the national title game. We know we've got the Ohio State's the Georgia's all of those teams. But Chip who do you think maybe has an under-the-radar chance of sneaking into that title game. Yeah, I'm going to go to college Station where the adults are in charge and the adults being in charge might be worth a win and a half. And I don't want to criticize Jimbo Fisher specifically because he was at a point in his career where things had really started to fall off from when he was winning National championships in Tallahassee. The staff as a whole. Oh, buddy, it was a cast of characters. Now you bring in Mike Elko, who I think was a great hire for Texas A&M. You're not chasing the stars. You're chasing a football coach. Who does he go? He hires Collin Klein from Kansas State. He hires Jay Bateman. And they've got opportunities on this schedule to get quality wins that will get the attention of the College Football Playoff selection committee. And then if the Aggies are able to get into the college Football Playoff, I think they will have one of the best defensive lines in all of college football. And I think back to the national championships that were won by Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and how important having a dominant defensive line was. If Connor Wegman, who we have yet to see be really healthy for a full season, if he can find that full bill of health, then he can jumpstart the offense as well. There's so many question marks that it is a little bit of a sleeper pick, but I like Texas A and M. S talent and defense chip. I'm sticking in the same conference, but I'm going to move a little bit further to the east. You need a team. If you want to talk about that's capable of winning a national title, you need an elite quarterback. You need an elite defensive player. And you know one team that might have that, that doesn't get talked about much. The Tennessee Volunteers, they have James Pierce, junior at defensive end, who might be the number one pick in the draft next spring. He is that good. He is an excellent pass rusher. But they also have Nico Oliver, the former five star quarterback who signed a pretty big Nil check when he first committed to Tennessee. And there's a reason he got all that money. The kid is very talented. He is a dual threat. He we've only seen him in limited action. He started the bowl game for Tennessee last year against Iowa, against a defense that has confused quarterbacks for years. He picked him apart. This kid has everything you need. This is a very talented team. They have a schedule that will provide them the opportunity to win big games and build up that resume. So they can withstand a loss or two along the way if they need be. But I'm telling you right now, the Tennessee Volunteers can win the SEC. I know we talk about Georgia. We talk about Alabama. We even talk about Ole Miss and LSU. Not enough people are talking about the Vols. I think they can win the SEC. If Nico reaches his potential as a quarterback. And I think they are a team that can win a national title. Tennessee in the first AP poll, comes in at number 15 A and M at number 20. But both of you guys on the same page when it comes to the conference, and that is the SEC. They, of course, are the top team on that article that we talked about earlier in our college football power rankings in terms of the conference. But the Big Ten was right there in second. And when I was going through and reading that article, it said the margin maybe wasn't as big as people think. So, Chip, if you're the big Ten teams here, what is missing? What do they need to do to close that gap behind the SE? Yeah, you need more Big ten, teams outside of the top four to be in that conversation with the Tennessee or Texas A and M you know, we just mentioned teams, right here that are the fifth, sixth, seventh team in the AP top 25 poll from the SEC. So that's a USC. That's an Iowa. That's Wisconsin getting it together under Luke Fickell. That's Washington under Jedd Fisch. Being able to capitalize on last year's run. It's Nebraska with Dylan Raiola maybe able to take a big, big jump here in the next season with Matt Rhule at the helm. I just think that the drop off that we see and the oddsmakers see it as well, that drop off is so much more stark than it is in the Southeastern Conference that if you really want to make it apples to apples, it's going to be about that tier two and having them not be good teams, but having them be great teams, having them be the kind of teams that we mentioned as sleepers to win the national title. That chip we're on the same page here. I would simply just say that the Big Ten needs to aim higher. It's not just that those teams need to improve, it's that the teams need to have the goal to improve. Because if you think back a few years ago, when Urban Meyer first came to Ohio State, it changed the Big Ten because he brought a recruiting philosophy from the SEC that you just didn't see in the Big Ten. They had the handshake agreements that once a kid was committed to a school, nobody else in the league would go after him and try to flip him. Urban did not stick to those rules. He completely turned things on his head. And I'm hoping that with Oregon coming into the league and USC, two teams who consider themselves teams that are competing for national titles, it could be a, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats situation in which the Iowa's the Wisconsin's of the world perfectly good programs who are developmental programs. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if they are going to catch the SEC as far as competing for national titles, those programs have to aim higher. It's not just going to. It can't just be find the three star and turn them into a solid player. You have to get your Nil game in order. You have to go after those four and five stars in Iowa made a big move yesterday, landing IOC epenesa a five star defensive end out of the 2025 class to the recruiting class. We need more of that from Iowa. We need more of that from Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska. All of these programs, because that is the biggest difference between the SEC and the big Ten, the talent level that they have on their rosters. Tom says the Big Ten needs to open up that wallet, starts shelling out money bringing in those players. Our Tom Fornelli and Chip Patterson helping us break down all the latest in college football. Make sure you check out that article on CBSSports.com. By the way, we've got two breaking down both the college conference Power rankings and the Group of five power rankings, as well. And while you're there, check out the cover three podcast with our guys, Tom and Chip, as they bring you