Ducks solidly in the playoffs, just shy of elite in USA Today Poll

Everyone will have one, but the first way-too-early, post-spring Top 25 college football poll is out, from the fine college football analysts at USA Today, Paul Myerberg and Erick Smith.

USA Today Preseason, Post-spring practice College Football Top 25

1. Ohio State
2. Penn State
3. Texas
4. Georgia
5. Clemson
6. LSU
7. Notre Dame
8. Oregon
9. Alabama
10. Miami
11. Florida
12. Kansas State
13. Illinois
14. Tennessee
15. Michigan
16. South Carolina
17. Brigham Young
18. Louisville
19. Ole Miss
20. Iowa State
21. Arizona State
22. Nebraska
23. UNLV
24. TCU
25. Oklahoma

Herein lies opportunity. Six teams are ranked in the Big Ten but Oregon plays only one of them in the regular season, No. 2 Penn State in Happy Valley on Sept. 27. The Ducks have the benefit of playing in a strong conference with a manageable schedule.

History indicates that least a dozen of these picks will be wrong. Like all such lists it leans heavily into the usual suspects, although neither USC or Washington made the Top 25.

About Oregon, Myerberg and Smith say:

The defending Big Ten champs will turn to UCLA transfer Dante Moore as the team's new quarterback. Moore served as Dillon Gabriel's understudy last season. The offense will benefit from major transfers such as RB Makhi Hughes (Tulane) and OTs Isaiah World (Nevada) and Alex Harkey (Texas State).

Oregon’s defense added another playmaker into the secondary in Dillon Thieneman (Purdue) but has new pieces to insert on the DL, including transfer Bear Alexander (Southern California) and rising junior A’Mauri Washington.

World and Thieneman are projected to be first-round draft picks, along with Matayo Uiagalelei and Evan Stewart. That would be another Oregon record, and the kind of NFL talent a program needs to compete in the playoffs.

Finishing 8th in the country would give the Ducks a home game in the first round of the playoffs. Last year that proved to be the springboard into the final, and so far the College Football Playoff Committee has made no changes to their seeding rules.

As the bracket structure stands, the 5th-seed is the playoff sweet spot. That gives a team a first-round game against a weaker seed, then a second-round matchup with the four-seed, the lowest-ranked of the conference champions.

Ultimately, though, a team has to buckle the chinstraps and play football. All the ranking and predicting is just conversation until someone gets punched in the mouth.

There are 17 Saturdays until August 30, Montana State at Oregon.

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