Early top 25

[Dark Horse]

From CNNSI.com, based on spring practices.

1 Ohio State Buckeyes
2 Oklahoma Sooners
3 Texas Longhorns
4 Miami Hurricanes
5 Virginia Tech Hokies
6 N.C. State Wolfpack
7 Auburn Tigers
8 Kansas State Wildcats
9 Michigan Wolverines
10 Washington Huskies
11 Georgia Bulldogs
12 Pittsburgh Panthers
13 Southern Cal Trojans
14 Florida State Seminoles
15 Maryland Terrapins
16 Virginia Cavaliers
17 Tennessee Volunteers
18 Purdue Boilermakers
19 Arizona State Sun Devils
20 Oklahoma State Cowboys
21 LSU Tigers
22 Texas A&M Aggies
23 Wisconsin Badgers
24 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
25 Missouri Tigers

[Bergermeister]

Based on spring practice? HA!

[PonyTales]

How does Auburn rank ahead of Kansas State, Georgia, Pitt, USC, Florida State, Maryland or Tennesee?

I know Georgia lost a lot to the draft, but they were loaded last year - surely there's some backup talent ready to fill vacant spots.

Nice to see Oklahoma State on the list - they had a real good year last year and should be even better this year.

Mizzou in the top 25. Nutty.

#24 is a little lower than I would have put Notre Dame, but since I hate them, I'm OK with that rank.

What's the first big game Texas will lose this year, proving that once again they are overranked because of all their recruiting hype?

How weird is it to see a preseason top 25 poll without Nebraska or Florida?

[PerunaPunch]

Ponytales,

You're so right about Texas. #1 in recruiting, #3 in spring practice, bumped out of the Top Ten by season's end.

Notice a trend?

[Dubbya]

They'll claim they lost a lot of speed when T.J. Ford sprinted for NBA cash.

[Lotus]

LOL

[SMU Blue]

How is Texas overrated?

They finished:

#5 in 2001
#6 in 2002

I would say they have proved they are definetely a top 5 team, so being ranked #3 is really not a stretch.

With a mobile quarterback, I think they will finally beat OU this year.

[EastStang]

Did Missouri recruit the JC national champions or something? They lost to Bowling Green last year in a bad way.

[Stallion]

yeah Texas finishes 1-6 or 7 in the nation in recruiting and finishes 5th and 6th in the polls at the end of the year. Meanwhile SMU finishes 95-100 in recruiting(not this year) and finishes out of the Top 100 in Sagrain. Seems to me to be a pretty compelling argument concerning the importance of recruiting especially since all of you know Mack Brown can't coach and Phil Bennett is the next Vince Lombardi.

[Corso]

Right!

But consider that the Horns, while well-stocked with young talent, lost Chris Simms, Derrick Dockery, Rob Doane, another starting o-lineman (forget his name), Cory Redding, Rod Babers, a starting linebacker (or is it two?)

They have good players waiting in the wings, but that's a lot to replace. We won't know until they do something in games.

[Stallion]

the difference is that Texas will replace those guys with National Gold Chippers while SMU will be looking to replace starters with very few Division 1 offers. Think I'm kidding? Simms will either be replaced by Vincent Young the No. 1 recruited player in the Nation two years ago or Chance Mock the No 1 QB recruit in Texas 3 years ago. Big Difference.

[Pony4Life]

True - it is a big difference. The pedigree is there for both Young and Mock. But they still have to do it on the field. There are stories every year of "can't-miss" guys who don't reach expectations. I'm not saying they won't be great, just that they aren't yet.

[SMU Blue]

Chance Mock and Vince Young don't have to be awesome right from the start. Since they have such a great team around them, they have a little time to ease into the starting quarterback role/offensive leader. That is, until K-State visits Austin on Oct. 4th.

According the the Dallas Morning News a few days ago, the Longhorns had 8 starters returning on offense, and 8 starters returning on defense. Pretty solid.