College Football Rankings: Way-too-early 2019 Top 25 projections
By Zach Bigalke
The fourth edition of Alabama-Clemson concludes another season of college football, both teams will open up next season atop the 2019 preseason AP Top 25.
More: Clemson Tigers stun Nick Saban, Alabama to win National Championship
Over four years of Alabama and Clemson colliding in the College Football Playoff, the Tigers and Crimson Tide have each won a pair of games and a pair of national titles. In their 44-16 win on January 7 to snatch the 2018-2019 College Football Playoff national championship, Clemson took a 125 to 116 scoring edge in the closely-fought series.
In 2019, these two teams are likely on a collision course to match up against one another for a fifth straight year. Until further notice, the Football Bowl Subdivision belongs to the Tide and the Tigers, and everyone else is just renting space for the moment. They will certainly open up the year atop the AP Top 25 as well as just about every other major poll in the country.
Who has the best chance to break up the Tiger-Tide duopoly atop the sport? Given the format of the system as it currently exists, every team is vulnerable to falling flat on a given day. And there are plenty of talented squads that will come into 2019 with legitimate hope of breaking through against the two teams that have won four of the first five College Football Playoff titles.
With the season only just behind us, it is highly speculative to start projecting how the AP Top 25 might open up when the preseason poll comes out in August. But as we sit here in the depths of winter with no football for another eight months, let’s go ahead and look at 25 teams that have a great shot of landing in the poll as summer draws closer to autumn.