With all of the major preseason college football publications now released, the kind folks at Stassen have once again been able to tabulate their annual consensus rankings. Louisville, which came in at No. 11 in the rankings a year ago, is the ninth ranked team in the country when the major preseason polls are averaged.
The Cards were ranked as high as seventh by three different publications, and as low as 13th by Athlon.
Southern Cal was the preseason pick to win it all in every major preseason mag this summer, and thus the No. 1 team in the consensus top 25.
The rest of the top 25 looks like this:
National Top 25
| Rank | Team | Total Points |
Athlon | Lindy | Sure fire Sc'tg |
TSN | Phil Steele |
Street & Smith |
CBS SL |
| 1 | Southern Cal | 210 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Louisiana State | 200 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 3 | West Virginia | 191 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Michigan | 186 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| 5 | Texas | 177 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| 6 | Florida | 161 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 6 | 5 |
| 7 | Virginia Tech | 159 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | 157 | 4 | 6 | 17 | 8 | 16 | 3 | 6 |
| 9 | Louisville | 155 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 7 |
| 10 | Oklahoma | 137 | 7 | 10 | - | 13 | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| 11 | Ohio State | 116 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| 12 | UCLA | 109 | 15 | 22 | 11 | 10 | 21 | 17 | 12 |
| 13 | California | 106 | 11 | 12 | 20 | 12 | - | 11 | 14 |
| 14 | Penn State | 97 | 17 | - | 12 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 22 |
| 15 | Tennessee | 95 | 20 | 7 | 15 | 18 | 25 | 21 | 16 |
| 16 | Georgia | 92 | 16 | 17 | - | 14 | 11 | 16 | 20 |
| 17 | Texas Christian | 86 | 25 | 15 | 8 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 17 |
| 18 | Auburn | 78 | 21 | 23 | 23 | 16 | - | 14 | 11 |
| 19 | Nebraska | 75 | 18 | 25 | 10 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 24 |
| 20 | Rutgers | 73 | 10 | 16 | - | 19 | - | 19 | 18 |
| 21 | Hawaii | 62 | 19 | 19 | 18 | - | 12 | - | 25 |
| 22 | Florida State | 60 | - | 21 | 24 | 11 | 8 | - | - |
| 23 | Arkansas | 54 | - | 14 | - | - | - | 12 | 13 |
| 24 | Texas A&M | 51 | 23 | 18 | 22 | - | 20 | - | 21 |
| 25 | Boise State | 37 | - | - | 21 | 22 | - | 25 | 19 |