Coaches tend to know more than sports media members when it comes to poll voting … right?

It’s a known fact that some of college football’s biggest names who participate in weekly Top 25 voting have a football staffer send in their ballot for them, going by national perception rather than taking the time to soak in the previous week’s games and individual performances.

Coaches are understandably busy during the season, which makes the preseason poll a bit different in overall scope and projections. Rankings partially reflect last season’s relevance and final record, but the greatest impact comes in the form of program buzz each team has entering August. Name always carries value when determining a preseason Top 25, for coaches and writers.

According to USA Today, “the Coaches Poll is conducted weekly throughout the regular season using a panel of head coaches at FBS schools. The panel is chosen by random draw, conference by conference plus independents, from a pool of coaches who have indicated to the American Football Coaches Association their willingness to participate. Each coach submits a Top 25 with a first-place vote worth 25 points, second place 24, and so on down to one point for 25th.”

We’ll try our best to determine how Thursday’s preseason coaches poll will look taking several of the aforementioned factors into account. And yes, it will feature at least seven, perhaps eight, SEC teams:

PROJECTING THURSDAY’S COACHES PRESEASON TOP 25

1. Ohio State
2. Alabama
3. USC
4. TCU
5. Oregon
6. Baylor
7. Michigan State
8. Notre Dame
9. Auburn
10. Clemson
11. Georgia
12. Florida State
13. UCLA
14. Ole Miss
15. Oklahoma
16. Arizona State
17. LSU
18. Arizona
19. Arkansas
20. Tennessee
21.  Boise State
22. Oklahoma State
23. Georgia Tech
24. Wisconsin
25.  Stanford

SEC teams receiving votes: Mississippi State, Texas A&M, South Carolina (1; Steve Spurrier)