Preseason College Football Rankings 2012: Biggest Surprises in First AP Poll

That feeling in the air is college football getting ready to start. We are just over one week away from the first full slate of games taking place, and there are a lot of questions that need answered before the end of the year. 

While we have to wait nearly four months to get all the answers, we can look at the first Associated Press poll that was released and some of the more questionable teams in the top 25. 

Here are the teams whose rankings were the most surprising to us. 

No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs 

I can understand why the voters are going to put a lot more faith in the SEC than other conferences throughout the country. It gets the most talent every single year, and is by far the most physical conference. 

That said, the Georgia Bulldogs strike me as a huge outlier in the top 10. Mark Richt is a great recruiter of talent, but I don't know how well he maximizes that talent as a head coach. 

Whenever the Bulldogs enter a season with high expectations, as they do this year, they often start the season with a loss or two against a team that they should blow out of the water. 

An easy non-conference schedule will make things easy at the start, but I still don't trust them in the SEC. Their defense was overrated last year because they played a soft schedule, so they can be exposed against the right opponent. 

The offense, led by quarterback Aaron Murray, has to find more consistency if they hope to compete for a conference championship. 

No. 13 Michigan State Spartans

Unlike the Bulldogs, I think Mark Dantonio actually does a great job of getting the most out of all his players. Kirk Cousins wasn't a great quarterback, but he did a lot of little things and was very smart in the pocket. 

This year, though, the Spartans have to deal with a brutal schedule and the loss of Cousins, B.J. Cunningham and Keshawn Martin. They do have a lot of talent of defense, which will help keep them in games, but when push comes to shove, can they score enough?

That schedule, which includes Boise State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska, is going to be brutal. I love what Dantonio has done with this program, but this looks like a transition year instead of a Rose Bowl season. 

No. 15 Texas Longhorns

At what point do you stop looking at the name of the front of the jersey and start paying attention to the results on the field?

Texas is a football state. Most of the best high school players that teams recruit will end up coming from the state, with the Longhorns doing their best to keep them close to home. 

Even with the No. 2 recruiting class in the country, according to Rivals.com, the Longhorns have done nothing on the field to warrant a top-15 ranking. They have won 13 games the last two seasons combined, which is hardly what you expect to see from Texas. 

Like Michigan State, Texas' schedule does not do it many favors. There is a three-week stretch in September and October with games against Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Oklahoma. That will be a good gauge to tell us where this program is right now. 

AP TOP 25 POLL
1. USC
2. Alabama
3. LSU
4. Oklahoma
5. Oregon
6. Georgia
7. Florida State
8. Michigan
9. South Carolina
10. Arkansas
11. West Virginia
12. Wisconsin
13. Michigan State
14. Clemson
15. Texas
16. Virginia Tech
17. Nebraska
18. Ohio State
19. Oklahoma State
20. TCU
21. Stanford
22. Kansas State
23. Florida
24. Boise State
25. Louisville

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