College football preseason rankings: Athlon Sports edition

Where are the tiers this year?

It’s one of the surefire signs that summer is upon us and no I’m not talking about the Midwest weather consistency being in the 90s.  Instead, upon walking into the magazine section at a local vendor this week I saw something else – the first college football preview magazines for the 2023 season.

I know they aren’t quite as significant as they were when I was in high school as the growth of coverage online only continues.  Perhaps I’m old school but there is just something about holding a physical copy of something instead of reading it online.

The first one I saw this week belongs to Athlon Sports who has been putting out season previews for pretty much every sport for as long as I can remember.  You can buy your physical copy here.  Notre Dame cornerback Benjamin Morrison happened to be one of the stars featured on the cover of the magazine I saw and in it, of course each team was ranked from 1 all the way to 133.

We won’t go all the way down but will instead focus on the Casey Kasem part of this list (top 40 for you youngsters).  Here is how Athlon Sports ranked the top 40 teams ahead of the 2023 season and just a little about each is included.