Oregon ranked no. 24 in the preseason AP Poll

With college football set to return this weekend, the Associated Press has released the first Top 25 poll of the 2018 season. The Ducks don’t kick off for another weekend but the opening kick of the 2018 season is on Saturday. Here is the poll in its entirety.

Where do the Ducks rank?

How does it affect the Ducks?

24th isn’t bad considering that the Ducks finished with a loss in the bowl game and underwent yet another change in coaching regimes. With three winnable games on the docket to start off, the team should be moving up a bit in September. The fourth game against the Cardinal will be the key one to watch in what should be a battle between top 20? teams.

Odds and Ends / Bonus Thoughts

• It was interesting to see the media rank Ohio State where it did given the circumstances of their “situation”
• Three of the playoff participants from last year are back in the top three and rightly so as they are the most talented teams in the country.
• If things break right for the Big Ten, the potential matchup between the Buckeyes and Badgers should be fun in the conference title game. Seriously, the OSU defense has legitimately at least five top draft picks on it while the Badgers’ OL is no joke.
• Based on this poll, the Big Ten is the premier conference top to bottom.
• It will be interesting to see how Washington fares as a top ten team. The defensive talent should be able to carry them along with a standout running attack.
• Last year’s bowl game foe, Boise State is ranked two spots ahead of the Ducks while last year’s coach has his new program ranked 19th.
• UF HC Dan Mullen saw his former program in Mississippi State ranked while his Gators are not.
• The pollsters must be high on Oklahoma even after losing the reigning Heisman winner and number one overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Soon to be full time Oakland Athletic Kyler Murray has the potential to light up the scoreboard like Baker Mayfield before going to baseball in 2019.
• There are two first year head coaches in Florida State’s Willie Taggart and UCF’s Josh Heupel.
• Perennial underachiever Notre Dame assumes a top 15 ranking once more. Can they hold it together this time?

Week 1 has some high powered matchups on display as the trend has been for the past few years:

So with all that said, what are your thoughts on Ducks being ranked 24th? Too high, too low?