Steve Wiseman’s preseason AP Top 25 football poll ballot: Everyone’s chasing Georgia

After a one-year reprieve, the task of assessing the nation’s top 25 college football teams before any of them have played an actual game returns.

A year ago, I dodged this duty because I was added to the nationwide voting panel just in time for week 1 due to another voter dropping off the rolls. So I was able to start voting only after teams had played real games.

No such luck this summer, as the task is to assess teams based on who they have back, who they’ve added and who they’ve lost from last season.

The top of the ballot is easy. Georgia returns plenty of talent from last season’s squad that won a second consecutive national championship.

After that comes another SEC talent factory, Alabama, followed by Ohio State and Michigan from the Big Ten and Southern Cal, which has last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, Caleb Williams, back at quarterback.

Florida State has so much talent back, with quarterback Jordan Travis leading the way, I was tempted to have them at No. 6. But Brian Kelly’s LSU team is primed to compete with Georgia and Alabama for the SEC title with Jayden Daniels at quarterback and likely SEC defensive player of the year, Harold Perkins, at linebacker.

So the Tigers are No. 6 with Penn State, stocked with a strong running game, at No. 7 with the Seminoles at No. 8 as my top ACC team.

Two-time defending Pac-12 champion Utah and Washington round out my top 10.

Clemson starts the next 10, ahead of Oregon, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Notre Dame.

Why is Clemson where they are? I picked Clemson to win the ACC, with Florida State second on my ACC ballot last month. I believe the Tigers will be better than the Seminoles when the season ends. But, for now, on paper, Florida State looks better.

That said, I like Clemson more than the four teams behind them. Yes, I realize the Orange Bowl result was a one-sided Tennessee win. But that was last season.

Ok, moving on to the bottom of the top 20, with Texas at No. 16 and Oklahoma at No. 20. Both are underachieving would-be super powers. Brent Venables’ first season as Sooners coach did not go well. He’s got some proving to do.

So I have Texas, Kansas State, Oregon State and Mississippi ahead of Oklahoma.

The bottom five is and always will be an exercise in searching for the least-flawed resumes. This being the preseason, when there are no resumes, it’s even more challenging to fill out the end of the ballot.

Texas A&M, coming off a 5-7 season, is at No. 21 because the Aggies are loaded with talent and, though he’s a flawed human being, new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino can draw up schemes and get points.

Tulane, UCLA, TCU and North Carolina round it out this week.

I anticipate many changes when it comes time for a second ballot after games are played.

Steve Wiseman’s latest AP Top 25 ballot