Preseason College Football Rankings 2015: Predicting AP Top 25 After Amway Poll

It's officially college football season. Thursday saw the release of the first major Top 25 rankings for 2015, as the Amway coaches poll declared Ohio State to be the nation's best heading into the year. 

There really was no surprise at the top. The Buckeyes were expected to be No. 1 and received overwhelming support, as 62 of 64 voters put the defending national champions in the top spot. The other teams receiving first-place votes were TCU (No. 2) and Alabama (No. 3). 

Rounding out the Top Five in the preseason poll are Baylor and Oregon. These rankings provide a brief snapshot of how teams are viewed entering 2015, but things are going to change a lot between now and when we get to the College Football Playoff. 

The first major response to the coaches poll will come from the Associated Press, which is scheduled to release its own Top 25 on August 23. 

Here's a side-by-side look at what the two polls should look like at the end of August, with the official Amway poll on the right and predicted AP poll on the left. 

Amway Coaches Poll (Official)	Rank	AP Top 25 (Prediction)
Ohio State Buckeyes	1	Ohio State Buckeyes
TCU Horned Frogs	2	TCU Horned Frogs
Alabama Crimson Tide	3	Baylor Bears
Baylor Bears	4	Alabama Crimson Tide
Oregon Ducks	5	Michigan State Spartans
Michigan State Spartans	6	Auburn Tigers
Auburn Tigers	7	Oregon Ducks
Florida State Seminoles	8	Clemson Tigers
Georgia Bulldogs	9	USC Trojans
USC Trojans	10	Florida State Seminoles
Notre Dame Fighting Irish	11	LSU Tigers
Clemson Tigers	12	Georgia Bulldogs
LSU Tigers	13	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
UCLA Bruins	14	UCLA Bruins
Mississippi Rebels	15	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Arizona State Sun Devils	16	Mississippi Rebels
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	17	Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin Badgers	18	Arizona State Sun Devils
Oklahoma Sooners	19	Stanford Cardinal
Arkansas Razorbacks	20	Arizona Wildcats
Stanford Cardinal	21	Oklahoma Sooners
Arizona Wildcats	22	Boise State Broncos
Missouri Tigers	23	Mississippi State Bulldogs
Boise State Broncos	24	Missouri Tigers
Tennessee Volunteers	25	Texas A&M Aggies

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

Ohio State's schedule sets up nicely for the team to make another undefeated run, like it did in Urban Meyer's first season three years ago. The Buckeyes are set up for an interesting test right out of the gate against Virginia Tech in the season opener on September 7. 

The Hokies on their own aren't necessarily a threat to Ohio State at full strength, but the Buckeyes will be missing many key pieces. 

Ohio State's athletic department announced defensive end Joey Bosa, H-backs Jalin Marshall and Dontre Wilson and wide receiver Corey Smith are suspended for the opener.

Bosa led the Buckeyes with 21 tackles for loss, while Marshall, Wilson and Smith ranked third, fourth and fifth in receiving yards last season. 

Even without those four players, the Buckeyes still have the talent to win the game. That sets them up to run through an easy schedule that includes only one game against a ranked team (Michigan State). 

Florida State's ranking in the coaches poll (No. 8) seems dubious, based more on past reputation than an actual deserved spot. Even the AP prediction at No. 10 feels too high, but it's a snapshot of how the program is viewed. 

College football writer Phil Steele listed the criteria most AP voters look for when filling out a ballot, with this reasoning being the most relevant to the Seminoles: 

"

A team that returns its starting quarterback and a combination of its running backs and wide receivers, for example, is often more highly regarded than a team that loses its starting quarterback but returns its entire offensive line. Similarly, a team that returns most of its starters on offense but loses a lot of its defensive playmakers is usually more highly regarded than a team that returns a majority of its defensive starters but loses its skill players on offense. 

"

That relates to Florida State because it is returning 11 starters on defense but just five on offense after losing quarterback Jameis Winston, wide receiver Rashad Greene, running back Karlos Williams and tight end Nick O'Leary. 

Florida State running back Dalvin Cook has been indefinitely suspended until his misdemeanor battery case gets resolved. Quarterback De'Andre Johnson was dismissed after video surfaced of him striking a woman at a bar, per ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach.

Given all that turmoil and roster turnover, Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher has a lot of work ahead of him just to make his team successful on the field in 2015. 

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

The nation's most underrated team heading into the season is Stanford, which I predict to start the season 19th in the AP poll and is 21st in the coaches poll. Head coach David Shaw has retained the physical style of play established during the Jim Harbaugh era. 

All of Stanford's questions heading into 2015 will revolve around quarterback Kevin Hogan, who is more efficient than dynamic. He completed 65.9 percent of his passes with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions last year. 

Shaw is certainly high on Hogan's development this offseason, per ESPN's Brett McMurphy:

Stanford doesn't have to be a team that averages 30-plus points per game because the defense is so good. It hasn't finished outside the top 11 in points allowed since 2011, per Sports-Reference.com. 

The Cardinal do have a difficult schedule that includes a showdown at USC on September 19 and home games against UCLA, Arizona, Oregon and Notre Dame. Making it through that unscathed won't be easy, but even a 3-2 mark could give them an inside track at playing in the Pac-12 title game. 

That's the beauty of this time of year. Anyone in college football can turn into anything. With less than one month before the AP poll is released and five weeks until games start, the answers will be arriving soon.