If you didn't feel like the college football season was just around the corner after seeing all the interviews and news coming out of the conference media days and leafing through some of the preseason magazines and publications, maybe you will now.
That's because the preseason US LBM Coaches poll was released on Monday and the Big Ten is well represented with six teams appearing in the top 25. We have to remember that the coaches can, and often do, vote differently than the media, and the poll really has nothing to do with teams making the College Football Playoff, but it's still interesting to see what the perception of teams are ahead of kickoff to the 2024 season.
So which six teams were a part of all of the preseason fun? Ohio State was the highest-ranked Big Ten team at No. 2, the Oregon Ducks checked in at No. 3, Michigan and Penn State followed at No. 8 and 9 respectively, and USC and Iowa snuck in near the bottom of the poll at No. 23 and No. 25.
As much clout as the Big Ten has, the SEC actually led all conferences with eight teams in the poll. However, the Big Ten had four of the top ten teams, the same as the SEC.
That's how things look for now. It'll be interesting to see how the rankings change after we see the teams in action at the end of August, and how the AP Poll sees things shaking out in the preseason as well.