** 2022 Previews: Athlon Sports Pre-Season Top 25 **

[Saunders]

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College Football Top 25 Rankings for 2022

An important note on Athlon's top 25 for 2022: This is not a preseason ranking of teams going into the season. Instead, this ranking takes into account where we project teams to finish after the national championship in January. Here are Athlon's projected top 25 teams in college football for 2022.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/top-25-college-football-rankings

 

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1. Alabama

2. Ohio State

3. Georgia

4. Clemson

5. Texas A&M

6. Michigan

7. Notre Dame

8. Utah

9. USC

10. Oregon

11. Baylor

12. NC State

13. Oklahoma

14. Michigan State

15. Cincinnati

16. Wake Forest

17. Oklahoma State

18. Tennessee

19. Wisconsin

20. Miami

21. Kentucky

22. Arkansas

23. Pitt

24. Houston

25. Penn State

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The Next Tier (Only including our opponents)

Iowa
The Hawkeyes should be strong on defense once again. However, crossover matchups versus Michigan and Ohio State dot the schedule, and major concerns remain on offense.

 

Minnesota
Running back Mohamed Ibrahim is back after suffering a torn Achilles in last year's season opener. But for Minnesota to win the Big Ten's West Division, quarterback Tanner Morgan has to rebound, and the line has to replace four starters.

 

Purdue
Quarterback Aidan O'Connell headlines a team with 14 returning starters and a favorable schedule that sees the Boilermakers miss Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State in crossover play.

 

 

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BONUS: Examining Turnover and One-Score Game Data and the Impact on 2022

West Division

	1-Score Games	Turnover Margin
Illinois	3-4	+5
Iowa	4-1	+12
Minnesota	3-3	+3
Nebraska	0-8	-5
Northwestern	0-2	-6
Purdue	3-1	-2
Wisconsin	3-1	+1

* Nebraska is a prime candidate to improve in 2022. The Cornhuskers lost eight of their nine games by one score and had a minus-five turnover margin. Neither of those numbers is likely to repeat this fall.

* Illinois played in seven games decided by one score in coach Bret Bielema's debut last fall. The three victories by one score all came in Big Ten play - Penn State, Nebraska and Minnesota.

* Iowa led the Big Ten with 31 forced turnovers and also tied for the conference lead with four wins by one score. Repeating 31 takeaways is not going to be easy in '22.

* Minnesota won nine games last year, but coach P.J. Fleck's team wasn't far from something better. The Golden Gophers lost four games but three were by one score. Included in those three were head-scratching defeats to Bowling Green and Illinois.

* Northwestern's only Big Ten game decided by one score came against Iowa (17-12).

* Wisconsin's only loss decided by one score came in the first matchup of the year versus Penn State. The Badgers also lost the most turnovers (23) in the Big Ten, yet finished plus-one in overall margin.

* Purdue's one-score wins came against Illinois, Tennessee and Nebraska. The only defeat was against Minnesota.

 

 

That last one is almost infuriating in how implausible it is.

[84HuskerLaw]

No mention of NU. Not a surprise of course but by including Pitt, not sure that is positive relative to Whipple.   Hope we are as good as a few of the teams included.   
 

Trying to put my most optimistic view in it, I’d say we end up around #65 if they rated all teams.  Not nearly good enough but better than last year I hope.  
i know we were supposedly the best 3-9 team but no matter how you spin it, 3-9 is just bad.  
 

NU has better talent than that but just can’t get organized and play well.  Hopefully, with many new players, new staff and schemes,  doubling win # is doable.   Never say never. But don’t bet the farm on miracles.  Long shots come in once in a while.  

[hskrfan4life]

Man how did Purdue luck out.

[Saunders]

5 minutes ago, hskrfan4life said:

Man how did Purdue luck out.

I think they're fine at QB, but they're gonna come back to the 5-7 win range this season.

[Mavric]

1 hour ago, 84HuskerLaw said:

Trying to put my most optimistic view in it, I’d say we end up around #65 if they rated all teams.  

 

[Huskerfollower4life]

1 minute ago, Mavric said:

 

[Treand3]

1 hour ago, hskrfan4life said:

Man how did Purdue luck out.

Because they are Purdue. No one really cares to watch them play comparatively to other schools, hence the cake schedule. Also they lost rare talents for their standards in Karlaftis and Bell. 6-8 wins tops just hope one of them isn't against us.

[Dogs In A Pile]

13 minutes ago, Treand3 said:

just hope one of them isn't against us.

 

Like 3 of the last 4 years which is still mind blowing that we haven't even match up with Purdue.

[runningblind]

2 hours ago, Saunders said:

 

 

 

 

That last one is almost infuriating in how implausible it is.

I really appreciate how you didn't put Ohio State in bold.  Nice touch.

[DefenderAO]

32 minutes ago, runningblind said:

I really appreciate how you didn't put Ohio State in bold.  Nice touch.

He bolded our B1G Top 25 opponents, not all B1G representatives.

[runningblind]

Just now, DefenderAO said:

He bolded our Top 25 opponents, not B1G representatives.

I don't care,  still a nice touch. 

[Saunders]

15 minutes ago, runningblind said:

I don't care,  still a nice touch. 

Yup, just opponents, lol.

[Hilltop]

Oklahoma ranked 13th?  New staff, new QB, tons of unproven players who are replacing transfers- seems inflated quite a bit to me.  

[Huskerfollower4life]

8 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

Oklahoma ranked 13th?  New staff, new QB, tons of unproven players who are replacing transfers- seems inflated quite a bit to me.  

Yup to much favoritism in my eyes. Part of the rankings probably has alot to do with the top 25 qb's that I posted which if you go look you be upset there too.