1996 Preseason Consensus

See the "notes" file for information on the preseason consensus. See the "1996 accuracy" file for a comparison between 1996 preseason predictions and final conference standings.

Jump to:

National rankings
Atlantic Coast Conference Predictions
Big East Conference Predictions
Big Ten Conference Predictions
Big XII Conference Predictions
Big West Conference Predictions
Conference USA Predictions
Mid-American Conference Predictions
Pacific 10 Conference Predictions
Southeastern Conference Predictions
Western Athletic Conference Predictions

National Top 25

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	Inside Sports	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	F'ball Blitz!	Mark Gunn	Jeff Allen	Mike Wynn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1	Nebraska	598	1	2	5	4	1	2	3	2	1	5	3	2	1	2	4	5	2	3	1	3	1
2	Florida State	596	2	4	1	2	2	1	2	3	4	6	8	1	2	1	1	2	4	2	3	2	2
3	Tennessee	582	4	1	2	3	4	4	6	5	3	3	1	6	3	5	3	1	5	1	2	1	6
4	Florida	572	5	6	4	1	3	3	5	4	2	4	2	4	4	3	7	6	1	4	4	4	3
5	Colorado	548	10	5	3	5	6	5	11	1	5	2	4	5	5	4	2	3	7	6	5	5	4
6	Notre Dame	529	3	3	6	7	5	7	1	8	11	12	5	3	6	6	5	9	3	5	6	6	5
7	Texas	444	11	9	12	9	9	9	16	9	6	11	10	8	8	13	8	-	10	9	8	8	8
8	Southern Cal	424	7	8	10	6	11	6	19	15	8	13	9	11	15	11	16	7	16	10	7	7	15
9	Ohio State	410	6	13	11	10	8	14	7	6	13	7	-	19	9	15	6	-	6	8	10	-	10
10	Syracuse	401	9	14	8	8	7	13	9	10	17	14	6	16	7	8	13	8	-	7	9	-	20
11	Miami-Florida	399	8	19	23	14	10	8	4	7	10	1	16	7	10	14	10	-	-	14	13	10	7
12	Penn State	391	12	12	7	11	16	12	18	14	7	16	13	9	11	12	18	4	18	11	11	-	12
13	Texas A&M	359	13	16	21	13	17	16	8	11	15	18	17	10	14	10	9	-	17	12	12	-	11
14	Michigan	323	18	7	16	19	13	23	14	16	9	8	14	12	20	7	11	-	-	13	14	-	-
15	Alabama	294	15	17	22	18	15	22	15	13	14	9	-	14	23	9	12	-	-	15	16	-	14
16	Auburn	265	21	21	-	12	22	10	21	17	25	17	24	17	16	19	17	10	11	20	15	-	24
17	Virginia Tech	262	-	11	14	20	14	19	20	18	22	10	22	22	12	16	22	-	-	17	20	-	16
18	Kansas State	239	17	-	9	21	-	21	-	12	18	22	11	18	-	20	19	-	12	19	19	-	18
19	Iowa	227	22	-	17	17	-	11	10	22	-	23	15	15	17	-	21	-	13	21	22	-	22
20	Northwestern	214	16	20	13	15	18	25	-	-	-	-	7	24	22	18	-	-	15	16	17	9	-
21	Louisiana St	206	14	-	19	22	25	18	12	23	12	-	12	-	-	24	20	-	-	18	18	-	21
22	Arizona State	181	19	24	24	25	19	15	13	-	-	19	25	-	13	-	-	-	-	22	21	-	13
23	N. Carolina	150	23	-	18	24	24	-	17	20	-	25	-	13	-	-	15	-	-	23	-	-	19
24	Washington	146	-	15	-	16	21	-	-	-	19	-	-	-	25	17	-	-	8	-	25	-	17
25	Virginia	125	24	-	15	-	-	17	-	-	16	-	19	-	-	21	25	-	-	24	23	-	-

Others receiving votes:

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	Inside Sports	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	F'ball Blitz!	Mark Gunn	Jeff Allen	Mike Wynn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
26	Texas Tech	122	-	-	-	23	20	-	-	-	-	15	20	-	18	22	-	-	14	-	24	-	-
27	Clemson	115	-	10	-	-	23	24	25	-	20	21	-	21	19	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
28	Wisconsin	106	-	18	-	-	-	-	23	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	9	-	-	-	9
29	Oregon	87	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	19	-	-	21	-	21	23	-	-	-	25	-	-	-
30	E. Carolina	78	-	23	-	-	-	-	-	-	23	24	-	25	24	-	-	-	19	-	-	-	-
31	Georgia	73	-	-	-	-	-	-	24	21	-	-	-	-	-	-	24	-	20	-	-	-	23
32	Kansas	72	-	-	-	-	12	-	-	-	21	-	18	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
33	San Diego St.	69	-	-	-	-	-	-	22	25	24	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	25
34	Utah	62	20	25	-	-	-	-	-	24	-	-	23	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
35	BYU	50	25	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	23	-	25	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
36	Wyoming	47	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	14	-	-	-	-	-	-
37	Georgia Tech	45	-	22	25	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
38	Stanford	41	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
39	Arizona	38	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	23	-	-	-	-	-	-
40	unranked	30	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Conference predictions

Atlantic Coast

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1	Florida State	20	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	Virginia	59	3	5	4	2	4	2	3	3	2	2	2	4	3	2	3	3	3	2	2	5
3	North Carolina	64	2	6	3	5	3	4	2	2	4	3	4	2	4	3	4	2	2	4	3	2
4	Clemson	72	4	2	2	4	2	3	4	5	3	5	3	3	2	5	2	6	5	5	4	3
5	Georgia Tech	97	6	3	5	3	5	5	6	4	6	4	5	7	6	4	5	4	4	6	5	4
6	Maryland	112	5	4	7	6	6	6	5	6	5	6	6	6	5	6	6	5	7	3	6	6
7	North Carolina St	137	7	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	5	7	7	8	7	6	7	7	7
8	Duke	161	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	8	8	8	8	9
9	Wake Forest	178	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	8

Big East

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1	Miami-Florida	32	1	3	2	3	2	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	2	1	1
2	Syracuse	33	2	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	1	2	1	3	1	2	1	1	2	3
3	Virginia Tech	55	3	1	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	2
4	West Virginia	83	5	4	5	4	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
5	Boston College	99	4	5	4	5	5	5	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	5	5
6	Pittsburgh	124	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	8	6	7	5	6	7
7	Temple	145	7	8	7	8	7	7	7	7	7	8	7	7	7	8	7	7	8	7	8	6
8	Rutgers	149	8	7	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	6	8	8	8	7	6	8	5	8	7	8

Big Ten

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1	Ohio State	38	1	3	2	1	1	3	1	1	2	3	5	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	2
2	Penn State	53	2	2	5	5	3	2	4	2	1	2	2	1	2	3	3	3	2	2	4	3
3	Michigan	59	4	1	4	3	2	4	3	3	3	1	3	2	4	2	4	2	3	3	2	6
4	Iowa	83	5	7	3	4	5	1	2	4	4	5	4	3	3	5	5	4	5	5	5	4
5	Northwestern	84	3	5	1	2	4	5	6	7	5	4	1	5	5	6	2	9	4	4	1	5
6	Wisconsin	124	6	4	8	7	8	8	5	5	6	6	8	6	11	4	6	5	7	6	7	1
7	Michigan State	140	7	6	6	6	6	6	7	8	7	7	7	8	9	7	9	7	6	7	6	8
8	Purdue	161	9	10	7	8	9	7	10	6	8	8	6	9	7	8	8	6	8	9	8	10
9	Illinois	172	10	8	9	9	7	10	9	9	9	9	9	7	8	9	7	8	9	10	9	7
10	Indiana	200	8	11	11	11	10	9	8	10	11	10	11	10	10	10	11	10	11	8	11	9
11	Minnesota	206	11	9	10	10	11	11	11	11	10	11	10	11	6	11	10	11	10	11	10	11

Big 12

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
North
1	Nebraska	23	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1
2	Colorado	37	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2
3	Kansas State	65	3	4	3	3	4	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	3	4	3	3	3	3	3
4	Kansas	75	4	3	4	4	3	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	4	4	4	4	4
5	Iowa State	106	6	5	5	5	5	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	5	6	5	5
6	Missouri	114	5	6	6	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	6	5	6	5	6	6
South
1	Texas	23	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	Texas A&M	37	2	2	1	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2
3	Texas Tech	67	3	3	4	4	3	4	6	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3
4	Baylor	77	4	4	3	3	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	5	4	4	5	4
5t	Oklahoma	108	5	5	6	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	5	5	6	5	5	6	5	5	4	6
5t	Oklahoma State	108	6	6	5	5	5	6	4	5	5	5	6	6	5	6	6	4	6	6	6	5

Big West

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1	Nevada	21	1	2	-	2	1	2	-	3	1	2	1	-	1	-	-	-	2	1	-	2
2	Utah State	26	3	1	-	1	2	1	-	1	3	4	4	-	2	-	-	-	1	2	-	1
3	New Mexico State	47	4	3	-	3	6	5	-	5	4	1	2	-	5	-	-	-	3	3	-	3
4	Idaho	49	2	6	-	5	3	3	-	2	2	3	6	-	3	-	-	-	6	4	-	4
5t	Boise State	65	6	5	-	6	4	4	-	4	5	5	5	-	4	-	-	-	5	6	-	6
5t	North Texas	65	5	4	-	4	5	6	-	6	6	6	3	-	6	-	-	-	4	5	-	5

Conference USA

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1	Cincinnati	32	1	1	2	2	3	1	1	1	2	1	1	3	1	1	2	1	1	2	2	3
2	Louisville	39	2	2	1	1	2	2	4	2	1	2	2	1	3	2	1	3	2	4	1	1
3	Southern Miss	55	3	3	3	3	1	3	5	3	3	3	3	2	2	4	3	2	3	1	3	2
4	Houston	90	5	4	5	5	5	5	3	5	6	4	4	4	6	5	4	4	4	3	5	4
5	Memphis	98	4	5	4	4	4	4	6	6	4	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	5	5	4	6
6	Tulane	106	6	6	6	6	6	6	2	4	5	6	6	6	4	3	6	5	6	6	6	5

Mid-American

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1t	Miami-Ohio	22	2	1	-	2	2	1	-	1	2	2	1	-	3	-	-	-	2	1	-	2
1t	Toledo	22	1	2	-	1	1	4	-	2	1	1	2	-	1	-	-	-	1	2	-	3
3	Ball State	35	3	3	-	3	3	2	-	3	3	3	3	-	2	-	-	-	3	3	-	1
4	Eastern Michigan	63	4	6	-	6	4	3	-	6	5	4	4	-	5	-	-	-	4	6	-	6
5	Bowling Green	64	5	5	-	4	5	5	-	4	6	5	5	-	4	-	-	-	6	5	-	5
6	Central Michigan	73	6	4	-	5	7	7	-	5	7	6	7	-	6	-	-	-	5	4	-	4
7	Western Michigan	86	7	7	-	7	6	6	-	7	4	8	6	-	7	-	-	-	7	7	-	7
8	Akron	114	9	10	-	8	8	8	-	8	10	9	9	-	8	-	-	-	9	9	-	9
9	Ohio U.	116	8	8	-	10	9	10	-	9	8	7	10	-	9	-	-	-	10	10	-	8
10	Kent	120	10	9	-	9	10	9	-	10	9	10	8	-	10	-	-	-	8	8	-	10

Pacific 10

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
1	Southern Cal	25	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	3	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
2	Arizona State	58	2	3	4	4	2	2	1	4	3	1	3	7	1	3	3	4	2	2	6	1
3	Washington	67	4	2	2	2	3	4	5	6	2	4	4	3	4	2	2	5	5	3	2	3
4	Oregon	76	3	6	3	3	4	3	8	2	4	6	2	2	3	6	4	3	3	4	3	4
5	Arizona	113	8	5	7	7	7	6	4	3	5	7	5	5	7	5	5	2	7	6	7	5
6	Stanford	114	5	4	5	5	6	5	6	7	7	2	7	6	5	7	6	9	6	5	5	6
7	UCLA	122	6	7	6	6	5	7	7	5	6	5	8	4	8	4	8	6	4	7	4	9
8	California	159	9	9	9	8	8	8	3	9	8	8	6	8	6	9	9	8	9	9	8	8
9	Washington State	166	7	8	8	9	9	9	9	8	9	9	9	9	9	8	7	7	8	8	9	7
10	Oregon State	200	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10

Southeastern

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
East
1	Tennessee	29	1	1	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
2	Florida	31	2	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1
3	Georgia	60	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
4	South Carolina	90	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	4	4	5	5	4	5	5	6	4	4	5	5
5	Kentucky	93	5	6	5	5	5	5	4	4	5	5	4	4	5	4	4	4	6	5	4	4
6	Vanderbilt	117	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	6	6	6
West
1	Alabama	35	2	1	2	2	1	3	2	1	2	2	3	1	2	1	4	1	1	2	1	1
2	Auburn	40	3	2	1	1	2	1	3	2	3	1	2	2	1	2	1	2	3	1	4	3
3	LSU	48	1	3	3	3	3	2	1	3	1	3	1	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	2	2
4	Arkansas	82	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	5	5	4	2	4	4	5	3	5
5	Mississippi St	104	6	5	6	6	5	5	4	5	6	5	5	6	4	5	6	5	5	6	5	4
6	Mississippi	111	5	6	5	5	6	6	6	6	5	6	6	4	6	6	5	6	6	4	6	6

Western Athletic

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy's	Athlon	C&PF N'wkly	F'ball Action	Bob Griese	TSN	Phil Steele	Game Plan	Street & Smith	Prev. Sports	Sports Illus.	Line- Masters	College Sports	W.S.G. Illus.	Jeff Allen	Mark Gunn	F'ball News	ESPN	Jim Feist	ATS Cons.
Mountain
1	Utah	27	1	1	1	1	2	1	2	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	Brigham Young	33	2	2	2	2	1	2	1	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2
3	TCU	80	4	3	3	4	3	6	5	5	4	3	4	4	3	5	3	6	3	4	3	5
4	Tulsa	90	3	4	4	6	4	3	7	3	3	6	3	3	4	4	6	4	4	7	5	7
5	New Mexico	103	7	6	6	3	5	7	3	4	5	4	7	6	6	3	5	3	5	5	7	6
6	Rice	108	6	5	5	5	6	5	6	6	7	5	6	5	5	6	4	5	7	6	4	4
7	SMU	123	5	7	7	7	7	4	4	7	8	7	5	7	7	8	8	7	6	3	6	3
8	Texas-El Paso	156	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	6	8	8	8	8	7	7	8	8	8	8	8
Pacific
1	San Diego State	23	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1
2	Wyoming	48	2	2	2	4	5	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	3	2	3	1	2	2	2	2
3	Colorado State	72	3	5	5	3	4	5	5	3	3	2	4	2	5	3	2	3	4	4	3	4
4	Air Force	76	4	3	3	2	2	4	3	5	5	4	1	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	4	5
5	Fresno State	81	5	4	4	5	3	3	4	4	4	5	5	5	2	5	5	4	3	3	5	3
6	Hawaii	125	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	6	6	8	6	6	8	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
7	San Jose State	145	8	7	7	7	7	7	8	7	8	7	8	7	7	7	8	7	7	7	7	7
8	Nevada-Las Vegas	150	7	8	8	8	8	8	6	8	7	6	7	8	6	8	7	8	8	8	8	8