College Football Rankings: Post-spring Top 25 projections for 2020

Cincinnati put together an 11-3 campaign last season with two of those losses coming to Memphis and the other to Ohio State. With Memphis not expected to be as strong, the Bearcats may be the favorites to win the conference. They’ll look for quarterback Desmond Ridder to take the next step and lead them to that conference crown.

The Aggies bring back the most experienced quarterback in the SEC in Kellen Mond and running back Isaiah Spiller looks to be sitting on a breakout season, but there are still several question marks for Jimbo Fisher’s squad. They allowed 220.8 passing yards per game last season, which ranked 49th in the nation. That number will need to improve in order to seriously compete in the SEC West. We’ve been waiting for Fisher’s recruits to take over, now is the time, but it’s hard to know how it’ll truly go in College Station.

Mack Brown is building something special in Chapel Hill. He helped guide the Tar Heels to a 7-6 season capped off with a bowl win just a year removed from a 2-10 season in 2018. With Sam Howell returning at quarterback with a loaded offense around him, it’ll be up to the defense to determine how many wins North Carolina can rack up in 2020.

Herm Edwards is slowly building a winning culture in Tempe. Next season the Sun Devils return the Pac-12’s top quarterback in Jayden Daniels and a defense that finished 29th in the nation against the run but will badly need to improve a pass defense that finished 110th. The talent is there for Edwards. Now he needs to turn into more than seven wins.

Michigan‘s defense will be great in 2020. The offense? Who’s going to play quarterback? Will the Wolverines move the ball at all through the air? There’s going to be a lot of pressure on sophomore running back Zach Charbonnet to move the chains and help save Jim Harbaugh’s job.