S.I.: Georgia No. 12; CBS: Georgia State 126th

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Sports Illustrated ranks Texas A&M No. 3 -- but there's an obvious Johnny Manziel qualifier.

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By Jeff Schultz

Sports Illustrated has come out with its six regional covers for the magazine's college football preview issue and none of the honors went to Georgia. That's not surprising, given that S.I. also doesn't even have the Bulldogs ranked in the top 10.

This is little more than preseason, page-click fodder but here goes: Georgia, which is ranked No. 5 in the USA Today preseason coaches' poll and is in the same position or close to it in other preseason polls, is ranked only No. 12 by the minds at Sports Illustrated. The outlet has the top 10 as Alabama (1), Stanford (2), Texas A&M* (3), Ohio State (4), Oregon (5), South Carolina (6), Louisville (7), Notre Dame (8), Florida (9)and Clemson (10).

Rounding out the top 10: Texas (11), Georgia (12), Florida State (13), LSU (14), Michigan State (15), TCU (16), Baylor (17), Michigan (18), Oklahoma (19), Boise State (20), UCLA (21), Northwestern (22), Vanderbilt (23), Northern Illinois (24) and Virginia Tech (25). (Please, hold your laughter until the end of the blog.)

S.I. is putting only players from its top six teams on regional covers. So those honors belonged to Alabama's T.J. Yeldon, Stanford's Shayne Skov, Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel, Ohio State's Braxton Miller Jr., Oregon's Marcus Mariota and South Carolina's Jadeveon Clowney.

The most amusing thing about the rankings is the asterisk placed next to Texas A&M at No. 3. Sports Illustrated writers and editors went out of their way to add this notation in an email to the media about the issue: "SI Top 25 Notes: *If Johnny Manziel is ruled ineligible before the season, SI moves the Aggies to No. 15 ..." Interesting that they don't distinguish how many games the suspension would have to be for: 1, 4 ... the entire season.

Back to Georgia: We'll find out pretty quick how good the Bulldogs are, playing Clemson (road), South Carolina and LSU in the first four weeks. Does being placed outside the top 10 seem strange? Yes. But if that's how the season unfolds, the magazine got the reasons right. Here are excerpts from the full Georgia preview:

The case for
[Aaron] Murray will lead one of the nation's most explosive offenses, with 10 starters back from a unit that gained an FBS-best 7.09 yards per play last year. Combined with a young defense loaded with four- and five-star recruits, coach Mark Richt has arguably his most talented team. "We actually left points out there on the field against Alabama," said the 6-foot-1, 208-pound Murray, who holds the Georgia record for career touchdown passes (95). "Coming so close has definitely been motivation for us."
The case against
As productive as the offense was last season, the line still surrendered 27 sacks, and Murray struggled with his accuracy when forced to scramble. On defense the Bulldogs must replace eight starters, including two on the defensive line and both safeties. Since 2008, Richt is 3-16 against SEC teams that have finished the season ranked in the AP Poll.
Schedule analysis
Can you say SEC? The Bulldogs have one of the country's toughest early-season schedules: They play at Clemson (Aug. 31), then host South Carolina (Sept. 7) and LSU (Sept. 28). Things get easier after that, but dangerous games still loom, especially the annual date with Florida in Jacksonville (Nov. 2).

For what it's worth, CBS Sports went one better than every other outlet, ranking every FBS team, No. 1 to No. 126. Georgia is ranked No. 5 and Georgia Tech No. 35.

Georgia State fans: Don't look. CBS Sports has the Panthers dead last at No. 126.