College Football Playoff 2015: Predicting Final Four After Amway Preseason Poll

The new college football season is finally starting to come into focus after a long offseason. Ohio State enters the campaign as the reigning national champion and will start the year as the top-ranked team in the country, based on the preseason Amway Coaches Poll.

Last season's inaugural College Football Playoff should go down as a success. While it's impossible to make every program happy each year, the fact the championship was decided on the field is a huge step in the right direction. Now, the journey toward the second annual showcase begins.

Let's check out where the Top 25 teams rank based on the initial Amway Coaches Poll. That's followed by some early predictions for which squads will battle for the national title at season's end.

2015 Amway Coaches Preseason Poll

Rank	Team	Points	First-Place Votes
1	Ohio State	1598	62
2	TCU	1487	1
3	Alabama	1452	1
4	Baylor	1365	0
5	Oregon	1260	0
6	Michigan State	1230	0
7	Auburn	1103	0
8	Florida State	1057	0
9	Georgia	1026	0
10	USC	1014	0
11	Notre Dame	883	0
12	Clemson	838	0
13	LSU	727	0
14	UCLA	697	0
15	Ole Miss	668	0
16	Arizona State	577	0
17	Georgia Tech	573	0
18	Wisconsin	470	0
19	Oklahoma	407	0
20	Arkansas	377	0
21	Stanford	365	0
22	Arizona	299	0
23	Missouri	229	0
24	Boise State	190	0
25	Tennessee	166	0

Early Predictions for Playoff Final Four

Ohio State

The Buckeyes feature the necessary talent to win back-to-back titles. The amount of skill and depth on the roster is incredible, led by two worthy quarterback options in J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones. Braxton Miller can switch back from his new hybrid role if something goes wrong, too.

On defense, Joey Bosa creates a massive headache for opposing offenses by getting constant pressure. He's joined by Vonn Bell, a budding star at safety, and Adolphus Washington, who should make a leap as a senior, among others. It's just a steady, reliable group across the board.

So it's not a question of ability. The biggest concern is how Ohio State will respond as the team with the target on its back, which is the opposite of last year. It's a challenge Barrett acknowledged, as noted by Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports:

"Last year, we were kind of the underdogs a lot of the time, which I like being," Barrett said. "I like people counting us out. But now, people are definitely going to be coming at us even harder than last year. People don't look at us as underdogs anymore."

The schedule isn't overly difficult, but according to ESPN.com's Austin Ward, Ohio State will be without four impact players—including Bosa— in their opening trip to face Virginia Tech. Their biggest hurdles come in the closing stretch when the Buckeyes face Michigan State and Michigan. But, if they handle the pressure well, another playoff berth is likely.

Alabama

The Crimson Tide consistently finish with among the top recruiting classes in the nation. A constant stream of top prospects ensures the roster is full of potential, but Nick Saban and his coaching staff have some work to get the pieces to fit together this season.

It starts at quarterback, where Jake Coker is the most logical replacement for Blake Sims. He must prove he warrants the starting spot during camp and the early weeks. Getting stability from that position is vital to success.

That said, Saban is focused on the bigger picture. Down the stretch last season, the Tide found themselves in a lot of shootouts where they needed to throw a lot to win. The longtime coach said the focus is getting back to basics, per Michael Casagrande of AL.com

"It's going to be a challenge for our team to re-establish the identity that we want to play with," Saban said.

Being able to run the ball in any situation and getting key stops of defense is the Alabama way. Getting back to that will give it a much better chance of success deep in the regular season and into the playoff. As long as the Tide execute in those areas, another playoff appearance is within reach.

TCU

TCU is one of the programs that emerged unhappy with the College Football Playoff. The Horned Frogs finished sixth in the final rankings as the Big 12 got shut out of the final four. Now, that's something they can use as motivation heading into the new season.

This is an offense with a chance to put up a mind-boggling amount of points. Trevone Boykin returns under center with most of his top targets from last season still in place. It's a talented group led by Josh Doctson, who had over 1,000 yards and scored 11 touchdowns in 2014.

The other good news for TCU is its schedule. There aren't nearly as many potential roadblocks as teams from the SEC are likely to face. The Daily Audible examined the favorable slate but also why it will put some extra heat on the Horned Frogs down the stretch:

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On the opposite end of the schedule scale, if TCU wins in Oklahoma State on November 7th, they will likely coast into the final two weeks of the season where they will face Oklahoma and Baylor. The problem here is that both teams are capable of beating TCU, and a loss this late in the season would certainly kill the Horned Frog odds of getting into the Playoffs over a 2-loss SEC team or even a 1-loss MSU team.

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There's no doubt they are going to score a lot of points. The quick pace always means the defense is likely to give up its fair share, too. But they'll be in good shape as long as they get enough second-half stops, which isn't too much to ask from a group laden with upperclassmen.

USC

The fourth spot is by far the toughest to predict. While Ohio State, Alabama and TCU are all pretty standard selections, that's where the confidence begins to drop off. Based on talent, several SEC schools could warrant the spot, but they will likely spend all season beating each other up.

That's going to open the door for a team from another conference—in this case USC out of the Pac-12—to take advantage. The Trojans are another team with a highly reliable quarterback in Cody Kessler, and the rest of the roster is rounding into form after a couple of down years by the program's high standards.

The question is whether they are ready to get back in the national title conversation. The Pac-12 doesn't feature as much talent as the SEC this year, but it's still highly competitive. Kyle Kensing of Athlon Sports explored how that impacts USC's title hopes:

"That run could come in 2015, but it may be early for the Trojans. The Pac-12 South is no easier than it was a season ago. Any one of five teams—Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and Utah, as well as USC—could emerge as champion."

If everything comes together for the Trojans, they are capable of running the table and making the playoff. Given some recent disappointments, the fanbase may be reluctant to go "all in" on this year's squad, but there's plenty of reason for optimism with the opener on the horizon.