College BlogPoll: Building the Preseason Ballot

Having taken comments from Monday's discussion on board, here is the current list of my top 20 teams.  We really only went over the top 10 last time, but this gives me an opportunity to open up the discussion into the next tier of teams.

1. Florida
2. USC
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma
5. Alabama
6. Penn State
7. Ohio State
8. LSU
9. Ole Miss
10. Cal
11. Virginia Tech
12. Oklahoma State
13. Oregon
14. Georgia Tech
15. Georgia
16. TCU
17. BYU
18. Boise State
19. North Carolina
20. Florida State

Some thoughts:

• I know I'm on an island with the USC-at-#2 pick.  I may still move that if you think I'm really out to lunch on it.
• As promised, LSU is not bumped beyond OSU and PSU.  I'm still not impressed with those two teams, though.
• Virginia Tech:  Hmm.
• I like Georgia Tech more than Georgia.  That team is totally sold on Johnson's scheme, and the job he did coaching them last year was absolutely terrific.  I think that was one of the more underrated coaching performances of the year, including the LSU game.
• Mid-majors:  Help?  I like TCU better than BYU because good defenses tend to be more stable and reliable than good offenses.  Boise State always gives me fits, preseason.
• North Carolina.  I feel like they should be higher than this, if for no other reason than the talent of Davis's recruiting classes.

Everything is up for revision until I submit the ballot, but I'd like to finalize the top 10 this go-round, and have the next 10 pretty well in place (with room for minor tweaks).