Tandaian No. 1 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Ranking all 133 FBS teams into tiers for the 2023 season - ESPN WWW.ESPN.COM Ranking all 133 FBS schools into tiers heading into Week 1 of the 2023 season. It is a paid site, but here are the tiers. Tier 1: Yes, them again (one team) Georgia Tier 2a: Contenders with recent playoff experience (four teams) Alabama Clemson Michigan Ohio State Tier 2b: Contenders with less recent playoff experience (four teams) Florida State LSU Oregon Washington There was a time, believe it or not, when the Pac-12 sent teams to the College Football Playoff. After Oregon made it in 2014 and Washington in 2016, however, the conference was never heard from again. Some say it never existed, just an urban legend the Big Ten tells to scare Rutgers and Indiana into trying harder at football. But the truth is, the league has a real shot to get a team -- maybe two! -- into the playoff again in what might well be its final year of existence before fading away to join the Southwest Conference and the WAC at the great Tangerine Bowl in the sky. Tier 2c: Contenders with no playoff experience (five teams) Penn State Tennessee Texas USC Utah At 78-35, Utah has the second-best record of any Power 5 program in the playoff era that has not actually made the playoff. The Utes are 19-6 with Cam Rising as the starting QB, with four of those losses coming by a field goal or less. Utah is basically a golfer who keeps rimming out putts, but eventually one has to drop. The odds of that happening are a lot better if Rising is fully healthy for the opener against Florida, however. Like Texas, USC is hoping to bid adieu to its longtime conference home by winning a title in its final year. To do so, Lincoln Riley will need to prove the defense has taken a big step forward in 2023. Tier 2d: Contender who insists on remaining in an independent tier (one team) Notre Dame Tier 3a: Teams that should score a bunch of points (four teams) Arkansas North Carolina Ole Miss TCU Tier 3b: Teams that should prevent a lot of points from being scored (six teams) Illinois Iowa Kentucky Minnesota NC State Pitt Tier 3c: Teams that could be good on offense or defense or both or neither (one team) Kansas State Tier 4: Forget everything you saw last season (five teams) Auburn Florida Oklahoma Texas A&M Wisconsin Tier 5: So hot right now (five teams) Louisville Oregon State South Carolina Texas Tech Tulane Oregon State is the sentimental favorite to win the Pac-12 after a 10-3 season in 2022 that ultimately resulted in the Beavers and Washington State reenacting that GIF from the final scene of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," with Will standing alone in a vacant living room. The only problem with the sentimental favorite is that Oregon State hasn't finished consecutive seasons ranked since 2007 and 2008 and has never won 10 games in back-to-back seasons. Tier 6: Something good to watch before basketball season (six teams) Duke Kansas Maryland Syracuse UCLA Wake Forest Tier 7: Kinda, sorta, maybe (five teams) Baylor Cincinnati Miami Mississippi State Oklahoma State It was, Cristobal said, a necessary step in returning Miami to greatness. And to be clear, this is a different necessary step than Randy Shannon's 5-7 season in his first year at Miami or Al Golden's 6-6 first campaign and definitely way different than Manny Diaz's 6-7 start in 2019. Tier 12b: Probably worse than everyone thinks (one team) Colorado The Buffs have the feel of a Silicon Valley start-up: tons of exposure; a promise to disrupt the whole college football system; a self-styled savant leading the charge; and in two or three years, we'll learn there was never a chance of it turning a profit. In both cases, we'll be left with little more than a reasonably entertaining Netflix documentary to show for it. At least Colorado has done us the favor of scheduling TCU, Oregon and USC in the first month, so the hype can only last so long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
