ESPN’s David Hale Puts NC State in His Top-20

ESPN’s David Hale, who is one of the best at covering and providing analysis of ACC football (and he’s hilarious), doesn’t believe in Top 25 lists. He finds them illogical. The difference between many of the teams within 10 spots of one another is negligible. So instead, for the second year in a row, Hale has presented his own version of a preseason poll, that is based off the following tier system. NC State is listed in ‘tier 3’, which puts them in his Top-20.

Tier 1: Elite teams, legitimate playoff contenders.
Tier 2: Established programs, competitive last year, but a step behind the elite.
Tier 3: Teams trending up from a year ago, could be Tier 1 or 2 but haven’t proven themselves.
Tier 4: Teams getting buzz, have some established veterans or strong position groups, but I’m not a believer.
Tier 5: Enough talent that, if everything goes right and they pull off a couple close wins, could be in the mix.

All of this is subjective, obviously. I’d also expect that the preseason tiers will include more teams (currently 35) than any future rankings (as we get a better feel for each team), but our aim is to be in the neighborhood of about 30.

So, with all that said, here’s how I’d put together my preseason tiered rankings…

Tier 1 (7 teams)
Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Southern Cal, Washington

Tier 2 (4)
Michigan, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Wisconsin

Tier 3 (8)
Auburn, Florida, Miami, Mississippi State, NC State, Kansas State, West Virginia, USF

Tier 4 (7)
Boise State, Georgia, Louisville, LSU, Kansas State, Stanford, Utah

Tier 5 (9)
Colorado, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UCLA, VaTech