College Football Rankings Spring 2022: Top 75
75 East Carolina
Final Rankings: 2021: 79 2020: 99 2019: 108
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: NC State
This should once again be a fun team in the American Athletic Conference. Holton Ahlers is back for a 19th year as the Pirate quarterback, and he’s got a lot of great players around him. If the D can be more consistent, look out.
East Carolina Schedule
74 Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns
Final Rankings: 2021: 38 2020: 15 2019: 14
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: SE Louisiana
Agreed – this is an insulting ranking. New head coach Michael Desormeaux inherits enough starters to keep the production going, but there will be a wee step back. Losing longtime starting QB Levi Lewis matters, though.
Louisiana Schedule
73 Georgia State Panthers
Final Rankings: 2021: 68 2020: 77 2019: 75
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: at South Carolina
Go ahead and put the pressure on Georgia State to come up with a giant season with almost everyone back from a seven-win team that played a whole lot of good games. It might be a few decent transfers way from pulling off the Sun Belt title.
Georgia State Schedule
72 Memphis Tigers
Final Rankings: 2021: 91 2020: 50 2019: 9
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: at Mississippi State
The bar is set higher now at Memphis, but the experienced offense now has to be more explosive and productive on a consistent basis. The defense is full of veterans, and it got help from the transfer portal.
Memphis Schedule
71 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Final Rankings: 2021: 82 2020: 82 2019: 122
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Clemson (Sept. 5)
It might not exactly be do-or-die time for Geoff Collins, but he needs to finally get this thing going after a few rough years. The offense has to be more explosive, and the secondary has to come together helped by a good front seven.
Georgia Tech Schedule
70 Appalachian State Mountaineers
Final Rankings: 2021: 45 2020: 68 2019: 6
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: North Carolina
The defensive backs and wide receivers are almost all new, but everything else is there to be the star of the Sun Belt. The offensive line and ground game will take over games as the season goes on.
Appalachian State Schedule
69 SMU Mustangs
Final Rankings: 2021: 78 2020: 64 2019: 28
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: at North Texas
The Mustangs have built up great records over the last few years without beating a whole lot of great teams. Now they might actually have the team in place to do something great under new head coach Rhett Lashlee – the offense is going to be a blast.
SMU Schedule
68 Stanford Cardinal
Final Rankings: 2021: 85 2020: 31 2019: 98
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Colgate
When will Stanford up out of the dive and be back to form? The improvement on the O line is a start, and the defensive back eight should be terrific.
Stanford Schedule
67 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Final Rankings: 2021: 81 2020: 60 2019: 123
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: at Boston College
Greg Schinao’s team will always play hard, and it’ll come up with a shocking win or two, but the defense has to come up with the right starting mix with too many new parts. The offense should be better.
Rutgers Schedule
66 Indiana Hoosiers
Final Rankings: 2021: 88 2020: 23 2019: 64
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Illinois (Sept. 2)
The 2020 season was an aberration, but so was the 2021 disaster. 2022 should be somewhere in the middle after loading up on the transfer portal for the offense – Missouri QB Connor Bazelak will take over – and the defensive front.
Indiana Schedule
65 Illinois Fighting Illini
Final Rankings: 2021: 59 2020: 71 2019: 69
Week 0: Wyoming
Week 1: at Indiana (Sept. 2)
There’s a ton of work to do. Bret Bielema’s team will play defense, but it’s going to take an entire offseason to find the right mix. Syracuse QB Tommy DeVito was hit too much at his old gig, and now he’s going to a team that needs to work on the O line.
Illinois Schedule
64 Cal Golden Bears
Final Rankings: 2021: 57 2020: 72 2019: 61
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: UC Davis
The transfers will be a huge help, but there are too many starters gone from the defense to think this will be a monster year. The offense has to find something that consistently works.
Cal Schedule
63 Boston College Eagles
Final Rankings: 2021: 63 2020: 48 2019: 84
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Rutgers
This isn’t giving enough credit to a team with a good offense led by a great quarterback in Phil Jurkovec, but there are just enough missing pieces to make it a wee bit of a question mark. It might be the proverbial can-beat-anyone-or-lose-to-anyone team.
Boston College Schedule
62 Northwestern Wildcats
Final Rankings: 2021: 80 2020: 10 2019: 110
Week 0: Nebraska (Dublin, Ireland)
Week 1: OPEN DATE
Is this one of those years that Northwestern makes something magical happen from out of the blue? Not quite, but it’ll be a whole lot better even though the offense has to be night and day more effective and the defense needs to replace just about everyone. Really, it’ll be better.
Northwestern Schedule
61 Army Black Knights
Final Rankings: 2021: 43 2020: 66 2019: 89
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: at Coastal Carolina
A light schedule and a veteran team should be enough to come up with one of the best seasons in the Jeff Monken era. The team might not be the best since he took over, but pass rusher Andre Carter and all the great parts in the offensive backfield are enough to blast though the slate to do something special.
Army Schedule
60 Syracuse Orange
Final Rankings: 2021: 62 2020: 94 2019: 79
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Louisville
Now that the running game knows what it’s doing with QB Garrett Shrader and RB Sean Tucker, look out. If the defense can do anything on a consistent basis, and if the line can be decent, this should be a dangerous team in the ACC.
Syracuse Schedule
59 Air Force Falcons
Final Rankings: 2021: 52 2020: 80 2019: 24
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Northern Iowa
This might be one of the best Air Force teams in years if the defense can crank things up on the line. The pieces are there to make the running game rock again.
Air Force Schedule
58 Virginia Tech Hokies
Final Rankings: 2021: 64 2020: 42 2019: 44
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: at Old Dominion (Sept. 2)
The lines are going to need work under new head coach Brent Pry, and new quarterback Grant Wells from Marshall has to keep the picks to a minimum, but the defense should be great fast and the passing attack will be more explosive.
Virginia Tech Schedule
57 Oregon State Beavers
Final Rankings: 2021: 61 2020: 51 2019: 77
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Boise State
Can the Beavers keep the momentum going after a winning season? The offense has to start over with too many new parts, but this was a young team overall that should fill in the parts fast. The D will be better.
Oregon State Schedule
56 West Virginia Mountaineers
Final Rankings: 2021: 44 2020: 43 2019: 94
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: at Pitt (Sept. 1)
Okay, West Virginia. Time to start winning big things in the Big 12 with new QB JT Daniels directing a veteran offense that needs to start cranking up the production. There’s a shot the defensive front is among the best in the conference.
West Virginia Schedule
55 Washington Huskies
Final Rankings: 2021: 75 2020: 26 2019: 27
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Kent State
There’s a big chance this is at least 30 spots too low and could change big-time after the end of the summer – the projections might be different. New head coach Kalen DeBoer will get the offense going, and the defense gets more than enough back to be great.
Washington Schedule
54 Iowa State Cyclones
Final Rankings: 2021: 30 2020: 16 2019: 63
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: SE Missouri
Can the Cyclones gear it back up after losing so many good veterans from a few great teams? The offensive backfield has to crank up the productions and the defense has to replace too many key parts. This might not be a Big 12 champion, but it’ll be strong.
Iowa State Schedule
53 Missouri Tigers
Final Rankings: 2021: 47 2020: 33 2019: 87
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: Louisiana Tech
Great against the bad teams and bad against the great teams, the Tigers are hoping all the new parts from the transfer portal can make a difference to replace all the lost starters on both sides of the ball. It’s all about the lines – they have to crank up fast.
Missouri Schedule
52 Kansas State Wildcats
Final Rankings: 2021: 26 2020: 58 2019: 41
Week 0: OPEN DATE
Week 1: South Dakota
One of the sneaky-good teams in the Big 12 this year, the Wildcats might need a wee bit to get up and rolling. However, give it a few games for the lines to get in sync, and this should be fun. Nebraska QB Adrian Martinez should bring a little more to the ground game.
Kansas State Schedule
51 Florida State Seminoles
Final Rankings: 2021: 58 2020: 83 2019: 78
Week 0: Duquesne
Week 1: vs LSU (Sept. 4) in New Orleans)
It’s Florida State. It’s time to be dangerous again after way, way, way too many mediocre runs. It’s been a building process, and now there’s experience to go along with a slew of good transfers. At this point, though, there’s a big prove-it factor.
Florida State Schedule
CFN 2022 Spring Rankings
101-130 | 76-100 | 51-75 | 26-50 | 11-25 | Top 10
Spring Rankings, Season Predictions By Conference
ACC | AAC | Big Ten | Big 12 | C-USA | IND
MAC | M-West | Pac-12 | SEC | Sun Belt