All pre-season rankings are suspect at best; daring to rank all 351 teams is absurd. But, we've no other measuring stick at this point, it does provide an indication of the strength of the Zags schedule, and leads to some fun projections. Zags have 7 games against top-50 teams (5 of 6 2d and 3rd round Atlantis teams ranked here, plus 2 vs BYU), and 7 more versus teams ranked 51-100. So, 14 of 30 games, plus likely 2 more in WCC tournament, and the Zags are 16 games against top-100 teams out of 32 games played before the NCAA tournament.
Even the down side looks improved when compared to recent seasons. Three-quarters of Zags games are against teams in the upper half of the rankings. Only six games versus teams ranked below 200 -- two each against WCC foes Pacific (202), LMU (207), and San Diego (227). NO games against teams in the high 200s or 300s, and we couldn't always say that. Plus, Zags play all over the country with games against members of nearly every conference, and always play some regional teams. Congrats to the schedulers for constantly improving the OOC schedule in recent years. Great results in a very difficult job! GU cannot control the schedules or quality of WCC teams, and hasn't been able to find a more suitable and competitive conference. Thus, they must schedule OCC as best they can, and display their national worthiness there.
To be sure, the final RPI rankings will be different, but teams rated below 300 aren't going to wind up in post-season play, while nearly all of the top 120 will.
A fun year is coming with a terrific team and a great schedule! Go Zags!! FF or more!!