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First 2020 Pacific Takes Top 25: Oregon looks to be Pac-12 favorite early on

A quick look at how the Top 25 might look like in 2020

By Jack Follman
NCAA Football: Rose Bowl-Oregon vs Wisconsin Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
  1. Ohio State
  2. Clemson
  3. Alabama
  4. LSU
  5. Florida
  6. Georgia
  7. Notre Dame
  8. Oklahoma
  9. Penn State
  10. Texas
  11. Oregon - The Ducks lose some key pieces and a lot of leadership on offense, leaving a lot of Penei Sewell and CJ Verdell to lead the way, but their defense is still loaded. Losing Troy Dye, Lamar Winston and a lot of depth up front will hurt, but what returns should still be a very good unit nationally, if not even better than it was in 2019 as players like Kayvon Thibodeaux and Mase Funa progress.
  12. Wisconsin
  13. Minnesota
  14. USC - The Trojans are still stacked on both sides of the ball and should be the Pac-12 favorite, but their coach leaves too many questions. Whoever starts at QB (JT Daniels or Kedon Slovis) will have a lot to work with and the defense still has studs like Jay Tufele, Palaie Gaoteote, and Talanoa Hufanga.
  15. Michigan
  16. Auburn
  17. Washington - The Huskies could have been a preseason Top 10 team had Jacob Eason and Salvon Ahmed returned. They still should get a decent amount of buzz with basically every important player on a solid defense returning and some young talent set to break out on offense.
  18. Memphis
  19. Cincinnati
  20. Miami
  21. Baylor
  22. Texas A&M
  23. Virginia Tech
  24. Utah - I’m giving Utah and their coaching staff a lot of credit because they’ve been gutted by graduation and early entries. Still some nice pieces to work with in their defensive depth and they’ve shown the ability to rebuild well.
  25. Navy

On the edge

Virginia, Arizona State, Cal, North Carolina, Iowa

I like what ASU has coming back in Jayden Daniels and the Bears have major stars to replace like Evan Weaver and Ashtyn Davis on defense, but are experienced and talented otherwise.

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