Preseason Mid Major Top 20
College Fantasy Coach will feature a weekly non-AQ top 20 throughout the season in addition to its weekly top 25. This will give us a chance to heap some praise on the little guy; or not so little guy in the case of the Boises, TCUs, and Utahs of the world who will most likely appear in both sets of rankings throughout much of the year.
Not surprisingly, THE Boise State University tops our non-AQ preseason ranking. The Broncos are tired of just BCS busting and have moved their sights towards the National Championship. This goal seems completely within their grasp as they enter the season #5 in the Coaches poll and #3 in the AP. They return 21 starters from a 14-0, Fiesta Bowl champion a year ago. Any other team, BCS conference or not, would have a National Championship on their mind as well with that much talent returning. We’ll learn early on just how capable Boise is when they play fellow top ten member Virginia Tech on a “neutral field” in Washington DC on September 6.
Our rankings illustrate the Mountain West’s dominance among non AQ conferences with 4 teams ranked in the top 10 and 5 ranked overall. The CUSA shows its depth with 6 teams featured in the rankings, the most of all the conferences. Elsewhere, the WAC and MAC each have 3 teams in the rankings, and the Sun Belt has two. Navy is the lone independent.
Here is the complete preseason non AQ top 20.
- Boise State
- Texas Christian
- Utah
- Houston
- Navy
- Nevada
- BYU
- SMU
- Air Force
- Central Florida
- Northern Illinois
- Temple
- Middle Tennessee
- Southern Miss
- Fresno State
- East Carolina
- Ohio
- Tulsa
- Troy
- Wyoming
