Football

Clemson’s still celebrating, but who will top the charts this fall?

Clemson’s Jalen Williams, right, and K’Von Wallace hold a sign after returning Tuesday to Clemson, S.C., the day after the Tigers defeated Alabama 35-31 in the College Football Playoff championship NCAA college football game in Tampa.
Clemson’s Jalen Williams, right, and K’Von Wallace hold a sign after returning Tuesday to Clemson, S.C., the day after the Tigers defeated Alabama 35-31 in the College Football Playoff championship NCAA college football game in Tampa. AP

There’s more confetti to be thrown in honor of Clemson’s national championship victory Monday. But that hasn’t prevented predictions from being made for the 2017 college football season.

With Clemson’s national championship parade scheduled for Saturday, Tigers fans are still celebrating Monday’s dramatic victory over Alabama. But several media outlets have jumped into the prediction pool for which team will be No. 1 this fall.

SEC Country compiled a list of 14 preseason rankings for the 2017 season. Twelve have Alabama at No. 1, while the other two have the Crimson Tide at No. 2.

USA Today has Alabama ranked second behind Florida State, while NBC Sports’ College Football Talk has the Crimson Tide ranked second behind Southern Cal.

Eight of the polls listed have Ohio State ranked second.

How did Georgia fare?

USA Today has the Bulldogs coming in at 17th, as does College Football Talk.

SEC Country has Georgia 16th, as does Pro Football Focus.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach has Georgia 13th.

The Sporting News has Georgia 10th.

The Big Lead doesn’t have Georgia ranked at all. The remainder have the Bulldogs ranked between 10th and 17th.

Georgia Tech gets one Top 25 mention: an 18th-place showing in AL.com’s early Top 25. Athlon Sports has the Yellow Jackets among its 15 other teams to watch, while SEC Country had Georgia Tech on its “also considered” list.

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Clemson’s still celebrating, but who will top the charts this fall?."

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