The 2007 preseason ratings are done for college football and the results are both expected and surprising.  USC is #1 as expected, and last year's champs Florida drop to #8 following the mass exodus of their players to the NFL draft.  Read on for the rest of the preseason ratings.

 

First off, the expected results.  USC is #1 by a fairly large margin, as they likely will be in almost every preseason poll and ranking.  They're loaded to the gills, have a great program, great recruiting, and a top coach.  On the downside though is their schedule, which is incredibly brutal with road games against Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, and Cal, and home games vs. Washington State, Arizona, Oregon State, and UCLA.  That's harsh!  However, did I mention that they're loaded?

 

The first surprise are who landed in spots #2-4 -- Louisville, Rutgers, and West Virginia.  All of them are the 2006 Big East darlings that we all got to know last year, and they all return most of their starters, including all of their QB's.  None have a terrifically difficult schedule, with Rutgers having quite an easy slate of games right up until the season finale at Louisville.  I would not be the least bit surprised to see one of them go undefeated and earn a berth in the BCS championship game.

 

The next surprise of sorts is #5 Virginia Tech.  Like USC, they're loaded, have great coaching, but have a average schedule, with their toughest challenges being at LSU, at Clemson, at Georgia Tech, and home vs. FSU and Miami.   And this says nothing to the emotion that is likely to be running high in Blacksburg following the shooting tragedy this spring on campus.  The Hokies are going to be a force to be reckoned with this season.

 

A few teams rose significantly since the end of the season.  Among those are the aforementioned VaTech squad (up 12 spots to #5), Penn State (up 14 to #12), South Florida (+14 to #13), Southern Miss (+15 to #32), and Purdue (+14 to #46).  All are loaded, have veteran coaching, and none have very difficult schedules.

 

A few teams dropped significantly since last season.  Notable among these are last year's national champion, Florida, runner-up Ohio State, Boise State, Auburn, and Notre Dame.  There's no real surprises here, as all of these teams' cores are depleted although I wouldn't count any of these teams out of the mix.  One unexpected drop was Nebraska, which is down 12 spots to #41, mostly due to them breaking in a new QB, having a relatively new coach, and a very difficult schedule.  Could be either a rough year for Big Red, or a very fruitful one, but I'm straddling the fence on their chances initially.

 

Last, and least, are the bottom five.  Rounding out the ratings are #116 Eastern Michigan, #117 Utah State, #118 Temple, #119, Duke, and by a large margin, #120 Florida International.  Poor FIU has a new coach, new QB, is thin at the skill positions, and I think there's a fair chance that they'll unfortunately extend their winless streak to 24 by season's end.

 

Without further ado, here's this year's preseason ratings.

 

Rank	Team	2007 Preseason Rating
1	Southern California	339.01
2	Louisville	310.15
3	Rutgers	307.95
4	West Virginia	306.75
5	Virginia Tech	302.87
6	Louisiana State	296.40
7	Arkansas	283.13
8	Florida	278.39
9	Oklahoma	276.69
10	Michigan	272.01
11	Wake Forest	269.06
12	Penn State	262.07
13	South Florida	258.75
14	California	256.80
15	Texas	254.21
16	Boise State	253.22
17	South Carolina	248.50
18	Wisconsin	247.53
19	Ohio State	247.13
20	Auburn	242.22
21	Tennessee	241.76
22	Hawaii	237.79
23	Brigham Young	234.50
24	Oregon State	229.04
25	Cincinnati	220.40
26	Texas Christian	214.00
27	Boston College	212.20
28	UCLA	209.18
29	Georgia	202.45
30	Texas A&M	185.81
31	Kentucky	184.54
32	Southern Mississippi	181.78
33	Arizona	174.74
34	Florida State	172.56
35	Georgia Tech	171.09
36	Central Michigan	165.96
37	Missouri	165.84
38	Houston	163.33
39	Maryland	159.63
40	Notre Dame	151.77
41	Nebraska	150.96
42	Texas Tech	149.53
43	Oklahoma State	149.01
44	Clemson	146.35
45	Oregon	144.73
46	Purdue	142.58
47	Washington State	141.54
48	Navy	139.95
49	San Jose State	137.99
50	Utah	134.81
51	Arizona State	132.12
52	Miami (Florida)	127.88
53	Kansas State	117.88
54	Nevada	117.37
55	Tulsa	110.71
56	Alabama	110.37
57	Virginia	109.32
58	Troy State	106.16
59	Pittsburgh	104.43
60	Kansas	104.24
61	Wyoming	103.43
62	Minnesota	101.18
63	East Carolina	100.80
64	Western Michigan	96.28
65	Rice	91.07
66	Vanderbilt	89.61
67	Mississippi	87.23
68	Iowa	86.51
69	New Mexico	84.60
70	Connecticut	83.63
71	Ohio	79.80
72	Northern Illinois	78.44
73	Washington	75.90
74	Southern Methodist	74.90
75	Ball State	72.08
76	Middle Tennessee St	69.05
77	Syracuse	62.86
78	Kent	59.50
79	Northwestern	56.10
80	Indiana	55.73
81	Mississippi State	49.96
82	Toledo	47.49
83	Air Force	46.82
84	Florida Atlantic	45.65
85	Fresno State	43.23
86	Marshall	40.76
87	Arkansas State	39.56
88	Louisiana-Monroe	35.75
89	Colorado State	35.09
90	Colorado	17.88
91	Central Florida	17.20
92	Louisiana-Lafayette	16.32
93	North Carolina State	15.67
94	Akron	12.36
95	Western Kentucky	10.62
96	New Mexico State	10.36
97	Illinois	6.78
98	Baylor	3.60
99	Iowa State	2.06
100	Stanford	0.88
101	Michigan State	-0.04
102	Tulane	-2.77
103	San Diego State	-3.78
104	North Carolina	-5.86
105	Texas-El Paso	-17.85
106	Bowling Green	-19.86
107	Memphis	-23.31
108	Army	-33.49
109	Miami (Ohio)	-33.79
110	Nevada-Las Vegas	-35.18
111	Idaho	-36.03
112	Buffalo	-39.81
113	Alabama-Birmingham	-56.71
114	North Texas	-59.34
115	Louisiana Tech	-60.79
116	Eastern Michigan	-67.91
117	Utah State	-79.18
118	Temple	-79.89
119	Duke	-84.50
120	Florida Int'l	-158.36