College football rankings: Texas leads the way, Penn State tops Ohio State in preseason CBS Sports 136

College football rankings: Texas leads the way, Penn State tops Ohio State in preseason CBS Sports 136

Preseason college football rankings have always been a challenging exercise, but never has it been more of a guessing game than the modern era. Massive roster turnover through the transfer portal and the annual musical chairs at the quarterback position have brought uncertainty to some of the more traditional methods of ranking teams, forcing college football experts to dig deeper to formulate opinions on how these teams stack up against each other before the first kickoff of the season.

Luckily, our CBS Sports 136 voters are willing to do that work, ranking not only a top 25 — like those other polls — but stacking the entire FBS landscape against each other. As we cycle back for another season, we here at CBS Sports and 247Sports welcome Delaware and Missouri State to the list as our ballot grows from 134 teams to 136 teams.

In terms of the top of the rankings, the CBS Sports 136 is in line with the Coaches Poll in naming Texas as the No. 1 team. The Longhorns were a top-four team at the end of last year and boast one of the most talented rosters in the country. Texas has been so consistent the last two seasons that we’re not even talking about the Longhorns being “back.” Those jokes are long gone because Texas is “here,” and it’s time for the Arch Manning era to begin.