Playboy ranks Ducks 3rd in preseason Top 25

By KVAL News Published: Aug 15, 2011 at 12:15 PM PDT
Playboy ranks Ducks 3rd in preseason Top 25
Courtesy Playboy

EUGENE, Ore. - The sports editor at Playboy predicts the Oregon Duck football team will finish 3rd in the Bowl Championship Series behind his projected winner Oklahoma and runner-up Boise State.

The magazine's 55th annual College Football Pigskin Preview also highlights Ducks LaMichael James and Cliff Harris and Beaver James Rodgers as part of Playboy’s Preseason All America Team, calling them some of the best players in the nation by position.

In ranking the Sooners at the top and the Ducks third, Playboy sports editor Gary Cole's picks line up with the USA Today preseason coaches' poll. In picking Boise State to finish ahead of the Ducks, however, Cole sees a different outcome to the season than the coaches, who ranked Alabama No. 2 and tucked the Boise State Broncos into the Top 10 at 7th.

Cole has been compiling these rankings for the last 24 years. His achievements have been honored by the All-American Football Foundation with the Jim Murray Outstanding Sports Writer Award, Playboy said.

Here is Cole's Top 25:

1. Oklahoma
2. Boise State
3. Oregon
4. Stanford
5. LSU
6. Alabama
7. Oklahoma State
8. South Carolina
9. Florida State
10. TCU
11. Michigan State
12. Texas A&M
13. Nebraska
14. Auburn
15. Virginia Tech
16. Notre Dame
17. Missouri
18. Mississippi State
19. Wisconsin
20. Arkansas
21. Florida
22. Arizona State
23. Texas
24. Northwestern
25. Georgia