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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-06-18 16:52:39+00:00.

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.

Arizona (high = 54, low = 96) becomes the 2nd Big XII team to enter the countdown at #66. Brent Brennan returns for his second season in charge of the Wildcats (much to the chagrin of a fair number of Arizona fans), and while his seat is definitely warmer than he would like, the $10MM he would be owed probably means he will get at least a 3rd year in Tucson unless things actually go worse than last season’s 4-8 affair.

Roster outlook

Fortunately for Brennan, he has the 16th highest ranked returning production in the country, which gives some level of hope that there will be improvement after last season’s significant upheaval that saw Jedd Fisch get poached by Washington and a significant exodus via the portal. Gone are star WR Tetairoa McMillan and lead RB Quali Conley to the NFL, but QB Noah Fifita is back, and hopefully 2023 Fifita (25 TD, 6 INT) is coming to play instead of 2024 Fifita (18 TD, 12 INT). On defense, leading tackler Dalton Johnson and the top 2 sack leaders (Tre Smith and Taye Brown) are all back for the Wildcats. Brennan wasn’t exactly raising Arizona on the recruiting trail, bringing in the 2nd worst overall class in the Big XII ahead of only Cincinnati, and losing out on former 5* LB Justin Flowe, who has now transferred to UNLV. The Wildcats are definitely hoping some of the new transfers are going to step in and step up, including former Texas State RB Ismail Mahdi and former Washington State WR Kris Hutson.

Schedule and outlook

The Big XII format of 10 9 conference games really isn’t doing the Wildcats any favors, especially considering the Big XII really has the highest floor of any conference and they’re playing Kansas State as an “out of conference” opponent. So while you can almost assuredly pencil in Arizona for wins in their other OOC games (Hawaii and Weber State), the only conference foe ranked below the Wildcats is projected cellar dweller Oklahoma State. They also get 4 of the top 5 rated teams in the Big XII (missing only Texas Tech), making it hard to imagine the Wildcats getting the 4 conference wins they’re going to need to go bowling, which they probably need to have sewn up before playing for the Territorial Cup on the road to close the season.