It’s an annual rite of passage for each of the 130 teams in the FBS to come into the season with championship aspirations, no matter how absurd or unrealistic they may be. Alas, 99% of those teams will exit the 2019 season disappointed, and the cycle of playing catch-up with college football’s elite will start once again.
The first College Football Playoff rankings won’t be released until Nov. 5, giving pundits and the selection committee plenty to gloss over as the games are being played. It’s business as usual at the top of our preseseason power rankings, as three of the four finalists in the playoff from 2018 assume their spots in the top four.