UC Ranked No. 25 in Preseason Coaches Poll

Preseason rankings are worthless. They don’t really mean anything and largely are just used as talking points before the year starts. They also tend to shape the early narrative of the season, which can be misleading. Nationally ranked team upset in November becomes much less intriguing when said nationally ranked team ends up winning 15 games all year.

However, the rankings do give some barometer to the landscape and boy is it nice when your team has a number between 1 and 25 next to it. The Cincinnati Bearcats are one of the lucky few (25 to be exact) that were included in the USA Today Coaches Preseason Poll, falling in at exactly No. 25.

Cincinnati is coming off yet another 20-win season, its sixth-straight, and returns talent in bunches with guys like Troy Caupain, Jacob Evans and Gary Clark joining forces with newcomers like Kyle Washington and super freshman Jarron Cumberland. This ranking seems appropriate for now, but the Bearcats have every reason to believe they will be rising as the year goes on.

Here’s a look at the full rankings.