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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-06-01 15:11:52+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
Oh, yeah! Big Red and Western Kentucky (high = 49, low = 104) are an aggregate preseason selection to return to the Conference USA title game in 2025. Either Paul Myerberg mistakenly thinks that the Hilltoppers are being coached by Tyson Helton’s brother Clay instead of by Tyson for his 7th season at the helm, or he’s blown away by a depth chart that sees only 5 starters returning from last year’s CUSA runners up. WKU ranks 125th in returning production, and are equally depleted on both sides of the ball (117th on offense, 122nd on defense). Legit every person who threw a TD pass (including starting QB Caden Veltkamp, who’s off to FAU) and every player who rushed for a TD except for backup RB George Hart III (whose 200 yards of rushing and 2 TDs are probably the high water mark of all of their returning production) are gone, replaced by former Abilene Christian QB Maverick McIver (great name!) and former Austin Peay RB La’Vell Wright. In fact, the Hilltoppers hit the portal hard, bringing in 43 new players while losing 37, which ranks 76th nationally and tops CUSA. Their recruiting rankings reached 4th in the conference (98th nationally), so they are all in on these transfers stepping right in. Helton’s never had a losing non-pandemic season in Bowling Green, so he’s earned the benefit of the doubt, but that’s a lot of gelling that’s going to have to be done before the season kicks off. At least this year they trade their big OOC game from an opener (at Alabama) to the SEC’s penultimate weekend cupcake invitational (at LSU), and if they manage to get by that opener against Sam Houston and then a week 3 trip to Toledo, the Hilltoppers could legitimately head to Baton Rouge undefeated. Missing Liberty in the regular season is a weird scheduling call by CUSA, but could legit set up a helluva championship game and the prospect of two teams undefeated in conference having the game site determined by outside factors. It’s gonna be interesting…