Preseason College Football Rankings 2017: Predicting Amway Poll's Top 25

Believe it or not, we are less than four weeks away from the beginning of the 2017 college football season. The final Saturday in August will kick things off for a handful of games, followed by a swath of notable matchups beginning the following Thursday into Saturday.

While the schedules have long been set, what we do not yet have is a preseason Top 25 poll. The tradition of these polls is a little outdated—especially in the College Football Playoff era—but they do serve their general purpose of informing the public of which teams are expected to compete for the national title.

Looking back at last year, the coaches did not do a half-bad job. Alabama and Clemson, the nation's top two teams in the preseason Amway poll, wound up playing for the national championship. Ohio State parlayed its preseason No. 5 ranking into a No. 3 seed in the playoffs. Fourth-seeded Washington was the long outlier but still was the preseason No. 18.

A year later, you can probably expect much of the same.

Alabama will be the nation's No. 1 team because they are Alabama and that's just the way things work. The Crimson Tide have been the preseason No. 1 two of the last four years, and their war chest of top recruits makes it extremely hard for any team to knock them off the perch.

Nick Saban has been open about his concerns on defense, where he'll be looking to replace a number of top playmakers. The Tide have quarterback Jalen Hurts returning but have a far younger team than the one that was seconds away from winning a national championship last season. 

"I want to learn. I don't want to waste a failure," Saban told reporters at SEC media day. "What could we have done better? Because everybody's hurt by the fact that they lost, especially the way we lost that particular game on the last play of the game, but it wasn't the last play. It's what led up to the last play. And I think our players realize that."

Behind the Tide, though, things get a little murky. 

Defending champion Clemson might struggle to even stay in the top five after losing Deshaun Watson, Wayne Gallman and Mike Williams to the NFL. The Tigers defense could be the best in the country, but it's hard to take any team that loses its leading passer, rusher and receiver seriously as a national title contender.

"That is the nature of college football," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney told reporters. "When Tajh Boyd was gone it was 'How are you going to replace Tajh Boyd?' We got a guy named Desahun Watson who did okay... You go recruit and develop your players and I think that is one of the things we do best. The natural thing to do is look at a piece of paper and say 'wow, I do not know any of these guys.' But come midseason, you are going to know a lot of these guys."

With Clemson facing question marks, the No. 2 spot will most likely be handed to defending Rose Bowl champion USC. The Trojans return Heisman favorite and potential No. 1 overall draft pick Sam Darnold, along with an offense that could be the country's best.

Darnold threw for 3,086 yards and 31 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman last season, leading USC to nine straight wins to close the year. He threw for 453 yards and five touchdowns in a Rose Bowl thriller against Penn State, which also enters 2017 with sky-high expectations.

The Nittany Lions were surprise Big Ten champions in 2016 and return quarterback Trace McSorely and running back Saquon Barkley to an offense that's going to light up the scoreboard. Barkley has drawn effusive praise for his potential at the next level, and the junior all-around star has a real chance at being a Heisman finalist.

Penn State's biggest competition in the Big Ten remains rival Ohio State, which may have fixed its passing woes with the hiring of offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. If J.T. Barrett can even become an above-average passer during his senior season, the Buckeyes are going to be a force on both sides of the ball.

Florida State, Alabama's opening opponent, could make waves with an upset win over the Tide but should still be considered the ACC favorite regardless. Quarterback Deondre Francois looks primed for a breakout, and the Seminoles are expecting an instant star in 5-star running back Cam Akers.

 

Amway Projected Top 25 Preseason

1. Alabama

2. USC

3. Ohio State

4. Florida State

5. Penn State

6. Oklahoma

7. Clemson

8. Georgia

9. Washington

10. Michigan

11. Louisville

12. LSU

13. Auburn

14. Florida

15. Oklahoma State

16. Wisconsin

17. Texas

18. Miami

19. Kansas State

20. Stanford

21. South Florida

22. West Virginia

23. Virginia Tech

24. Tennessee

25. Washington State