College Football Rankings Released, USC Takes Top Spot

With college football set to begin in less than two weeks the AP released their rankings for the upcoming season and the team in Southern California was once again the popular choice to take the BCS title.

Grabbing 62 of the 65 possible first place votes USC enters the season as the odds on favorite to return to the BCS Championship Game and win another title under Pete Carroll. USC may be tested in their second week when they head to Lincoln to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Road games against Notre Dame and California could also stand in their way of hoisting the year end trophy.

LSU got the nod at number two with two first place votes heading the Tigers way. Coming off of a 10-2 record from the 2006 season LSU will look to run through the tough SEC unscathed in order to chase their title hopes. The Tigers will face Virginia Tech at home in their second game of the season. A favorable schedule has the Tigers playing South Carolina, Florida, Auburn and Arkansas in Baton Rouge this year.

In a bit of a surprise West Virginia received enough votes to take the number three spot and garnered a first place vote as well. While coming off a 10-2 season the Mountaineers once again find their toughest opponents inside their Big East conference. In all likelihood they should be 7-0 before traveling to play Rutgers in late October. They then face Louisville at home two weeks later.

The Texas Longhorns received four more votes than Michigan for the number four spot and have many talking National Championship in Austin. The Longhorns face TCU, Oklahoma and Nebraska at home this year and will only have to travel to face rival Texas A&M the last game of the year.

With the Longhorns barely ahead of them the Michigan Wolverines face tough challenges to climb the AP ladder. Michigan hosts rival Notre Dame in week three and then Penn State a week later. They’ll close the Big Ten season with back-to-back games against Wisconsin and Ohio State, two teams that went a combines 23-1 in the regular season last year.

AP College Football Rankings

 1. USC (62) 0-0 1,622
 2. LSU (2) 0-0 1,511
 3. West Virginia (1) 0-0 1,396
 4. Texas 0-0 1,375
 5. Michigan 0-0 1,371
 6. Florida 0-0 1,276
 7. Wisconsin 0-0 1,192
 8. Oklahoma 0-0 1,166
 9. Virginia Tech 0-0 1,148
10. Louisville 0-0 1,031
11. Ohio State 0-0 876
12. California 0-0 790
13. Georgia 0-0 782
14. UCLA 0-0 605
15. Tennessee 0-0 571
16. Rutgers 0-0 560
17. Penn State 0-0 542
18. Auburn 0-0 519
19. Florida State 0-0 392
20. Nebraska 0-0 377
21. Arkansas 0-0 376
22. TCU 0-0 283
23. Hawaii 0-0 256
24. Boise State 0-0 187
25. Texas A&M 0-0 162

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