Here is Phil Steele's Top 40 -
1. Ohio State
2. TCU
3. USC
4. Alabama
5. Baylor
6. Georgia
7. Stanford
8. Florida State
9. Michigan State
10. LSU
11. Oregon
12. Notre Dame
13. Wisconsin
14. Auburn
15. UCLA
16. Virginia Tech
17. Clemson
18. Oklahoma
19. Penn State
20. Ole Miss
21. Miami (FL)
22. Arkansas
23. Boise State
24. Missouri
25. Tennessee
26. Nebraska
27. Utah
28. Oklahoma State
29. Arizona State
30. Georgia Tech
31. Marshall
32. Texas A&M
33. Texas
34. Arizona
35. Toledo
36. Minnesota
37. Louisville
38. San Diego State
39. Mississippi State
40. Cincinnati
Obviously this can be debated about a few spots here and there, and pre-season polls mean very little but this will be our jumping off point.
Highlighting the top 2 candidates:
USC: They have the 5th highest 4 year recruiting average in the country behind only Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State and LSU. That alone should suggest that it's time for them to do something meaningful on the field as all the other teams above them have been in a title game since 2011 (and each has won one since 2007). They haven't been relevant on the national stage since Pete Carroll jumped ship for the NFL in 2009, and even in the later years of his time there. They have one of, if not the most, accurate quarterbacks in the country returning along with all five offensive linemen returning. That is a recipe for major success. Coupled with the offensive weapons they have, that's formidable.
Georgia: What can you say about Georgia that hasn't already been said? Not much. They are 1b to Clemson's 1a in the let-down category. At least a team like Oklahoma has been to numerous BCS bowls(9), UGA only has 3 major bowl appearances in the past 17 years and it's not from a lack of talent. In the last 10 years, UGA has put 56 players into the NFL Draft, good for 4th overall. They have an all-world running back in Nick Chubb coming back along with 4 offensive line starters.
Who (if any) of these perennial former powers and/or underachievers can actually make a run this year?
