The CBS Sports 130 was released on Aug. 11, and both those rankings and the 2021 College Football America Yearbook’s Preseason Top 130 had something in common — Alabama at the top.
The Crimson Tide are coming off a season in which they won the national championship for the sixth time under head coach Nick Saban. While Alabama sent six players to the NFL via first-round picks, the Tide still have a wealth of talent returning to Tuscaloosa. So it’s no big surprise that both the game’s coaches and the College Football America Yearbook have Alabama at the top of their preseason rankings.
Both CBS Sports and the College Football America Yearbook do a full ranking of all 130 teams, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll explore the differences in the Top 30.
CBS Sports had Clemson at No. 2, Oklahoma at No. 3, Ohio State at No. 4, Georgia at No. 5, Iowa State at No. 6, Texas A&M at No. 7, North Carolina at No. 8, Oregon at No. 9 and Notre Dame at No. 10.
The College Football America Yearbook ranked Clemson at No. 2, followed by No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 5 Georgia, No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 8 Florida, No. 9 Iowa State and No. 10 Oregon in its full preseason FBS Top 130, which ranks ever team in the country.
The only real difference between the two Top 10s is that CBS Sports had North Carolina in the Top 10 and the Yearbook had Florida in the Top 10.
After the Top 10, CBS Sports had Cincinnati at No. 11, Florida at No. 12, Wisconsin at No. 13, LSU at No. 14, Miami (FL) at No. 15, USC at No. 16, Penn State at No. 17, Iowa at No. 18, Texas at No. 19, Washington at No. 20, Indiana at No. 21, Utah at No. 22, Ole Miss at No. 23, Arizona State at No. 24 and Louisiana at No. 25.
The rest of the College Football America Yearbook Top 25 included No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 12 Miami (FL), No. 13 LSU, No. 14 Iowa, No. 15 Cincinnati, No. 16 North Carolina, No. 17 USC, No. 18 Indiana, No. 19 Washington, No. 20 Utah, No. 21 Penn State, No. 22 Texas, No. 23 Michigan, No. 24 Oklahoma State and No. 25 Boise State.
If you’re looking for differences, the Yearbook appears to be higher on Michigan, Oklahoma State and Boise State, its final three teams, and a little lower on Texas and Penn State.
The College Football America 2021 Yearbook features more than 900 college football teams from the United States and Canada in more than 250 striking, full-color pages. That includes every team from the NCAA (FBS, FCS, Division II and Division III), NAIA, NJCAA, CCCAA and U Sports (Canada). It also includes updates on club football, one-year postgraduate prep/sports academies and Mexican college football, along with dozens of action shots and stadium photos taken by the CFA staff.
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