By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer

The 2019 college football season is seven and a half months away. Time to start projecting.

On the latest AP Top 25 College Football Podcast , Bill Connelly of SB Nation joins AP's Ralph Russo to talk about the release of the S&P+ projections for next season. Connolly's metric combines returning production, recruiting rating and recent results to rate the best teams for the coming season.

No surprise, Alabama is No. 1. S&P+ really loves the Southeastern Conference. It is skeptical about Texas being all the way back. There is a huge gap between national champion Clemson and the rest of the ACC and a potentially interesting race developing in the Big Ten West. Oregon will be crucial for a Pac-12 rebound.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at https://podcastone.com/AP-Top-25-College-Football-Podcast

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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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