NCAA Football Twitter Mailbag: Top 25, Georgia Tech, Baylor, USC, More

The preseason Top 25 always stirs debate, and that makes it a good topic to tackle in our first NCAA football Twitter mailbag, where we discuss whether Georgia Tech is overrated, whether Baylor could be a surprise team, what's up with USC, and more.

Your tweets and my responses for our college football Twitter mailbag are below.

FBfollies: How can anyone justify having Georgia Tech ranked so high?
Based on the early reaction I've heard, Georgia Tech seems to be the team whose ranking -- No. 15, according to the coaches -- has the most people talking. The coaches are actually right in the middle of where I've seen Georgia Tech predicted to finish; various preseason rankings have Tech anywhere from No. 7 to outside the Top 25.

Personally, I like what Paul Johnson is building at Georgia Tech. The bowl game beat-down at the hands of LSU wasn't pretty, but the Yellow Jackets return almost all the same offensive personnel that ran roughshod over Miami and Georgia at the end of last season. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Georgia Tech finish the season as a Top 15 team.

Brandon_I: Baylor is missing. Just kidding.
I know you're kidding, and of course, Baylor didn't get any Top 25 votes, but don't sleep on the Bears. As Terrance Harris wrote last month, there's optimism in Waco the likes of which there hasn't been in a very long time. And I think Robert Griffin might just be the best athlete ever to play quarterback in college football. I wouldn't be shocked to see Baylor win six games this season, which would be the most for Baylor since 1995.

dustinjames: The National Title belongs to either Florida or Oklahoma. USC will lose at Oregon seeing as USC can't win in Oregon.
I agree with you that Florida and Oklahoma deserve to be the Top 2 teams heading into the season, although I don't say it with as much certainty as you do: The Oklahoma-Texas game will basically be a toss-up, and Florida is walking a minefield in the SEC. And as for USC...

JayVeeEn: I think they're good, I'm just wondering how much USC had to pay for the fourth spot.
I'm surprised by all the anti-USC sentiment out there. Yes, I know they lost quarterback Mark Sanchez and a ridiculous amount of defensive talent (eight Trojan defenders were drafted, four on the first day), but I don't think ranking a team No. 4 when they've been in the Top 4 for seven straight seasons is all that unreasonable.

On the other hand, if your anti-USC sentiment is based on the seemingly never-ending NCAA investigation of the school, well, your sentiment is a popular one.

PJHarrison: Looks OK to me although the bottom seems more like a popularity contest.
I think the whole poll is basically a popularity contest. As I've said before, the preseason polls are useful mostly as a measurement of the biases of the voters. Any BCS conference team that had the same 2008 season as Utah would be ranked much higher than Utah's No. 18 heading into 2009. Only Notre Dame could be ranked in the preseason Top 25 after losing 15 games the last two seasons. And so on.

So no, the preseason Top 25 isn't gospel, and yes, it's mostly a popularity contest. It's still fun to talk about, though.

Want to be part of our next college football Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.