Christian: Examining the coaches' top 25

The USA Today Coaches Top 25 poll was released this past week and the defending national champion Florida Gators sit atop of the rankings.

If you believe in the mythical Bowl Championship Series, then the Gators are your defending national champions. However, there should be a playoff in Division I college football, however, that's another column in itself.

The Gators grabbed 53 of the 59 votes for first place, with No. 2 Texas earning four votes.

No. 3 Oklahoma received one first-place vote, as did the Southern California Trojans at No. 4.

At No. 5, Alabama is the second of five Southeastern Conference teams to be ranked. With the Gators and Tide are LSU at No. 9, Ole Miss at No. 10 and Georgia at No. 13.

The SEC leads the way in the preseason rankings with five teams, followed by the Big 12, the Pac-10 and Atlantic Coast Conference, each with four, the Big Ten with three and the Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference each with two.

Notre Dame is lone independent ranked, coming in at No. 23.

The four ACC teams are No. 7 Virginia Tech, No. 15 Georgia Tech, No. 19 Florida State and No. 20 North Carolina.

On Sept. 5, the Crimson Tide and Hokies tangle in a battle of No. 5 vs. No. 7, in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

Four of the top five teams, outside of Alabama, have cupcakes for their opening games of the season.

All on Sept. 5, Florida is at home against Charleston Southern, Texas entertains Louisiana-Monroe, Oklahoma is at home against Brigham Young, which is ranked No. 24, and USC plays San Jose State.

The Gators should roll to 5-0 this season with their first test coming on the road Oct. 10, in Baton Rouge, La., against the Tigers.

Texas should also be at 5-0 when it plays Oklahoma on Oct. 17 in Dallas. However, the Longhorns will entertain Texas Tech on Sept. 19, minus Michael Crabtree.

Oklahoma should be undefeated itself when it gets to Dallas to face Texas. However, two weeks earlier on Oct. 3, the Sooners travel to south Florida to take on the Miami Hurricanes.

As for Southern Cal and the powder-puff conference it plays in, the Trojans' toughest games will come out of conference.

On Sept. 12, USC is at No. 6 Ohio State and on Oct. 17 at Notre Dame.

If Alabama gets by Virginia Tech on opening night, the Crimson Tide should roll to 5-0 before its Oct. 10 matchup against No. 10 Ole Miss.

As for the Hokies, after the game against Alabama, they will cruise until playing back-to-back home games against Nebraska on Sept. 19 and Miami (Fla.) on Sept. 26.

As for the Maryland Terrapins, they will open the season in California against the Bears on Sept. 5 before coming home and playing a team they have no business playing in James Madison University. The Terps are No. 54, and for good reason.

Navy opens its season in Columbus, Ohio, against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Sept. 5. Navy is ranked right behind Maryland at No. 55.

Pittsburgh comes into the season ranked at No. 30, followed by Big East rivals West Virginia at No. 31 and Rutgers at No. 32.

Threatening to take his football and go home

Rumors are flying that San Francisco 49ers' top draft choice, Michael Crabtree -- the No. 10 overall selection in this year's NFL Draft -- is threatening to sit during the entire season and re-enter the draft next year due to contract problems.

As of Saturday evening, Crabtree was still unsigned; he feels he is worth more than Oakland's top draft choice, Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Heyward-Bey was drafted at No. 7 and signed for $38 million.

Redskins should pursue Vick if they're serious about winning

Also as of late Saturday evening, former Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick had yet to sign with an NFL team.

More rumors are swirling that Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder wants to sign the former Atlanta Falcons signal-caller; however, he doesn't want to deal with the public backlash that could come with Vick.

Green Bay is said to be interested in Vick and with Minnesota's Tavaris Jackson still hurting, the Vikings could come into play if a certain quarterback in Mississippi remains retired.

If the Redskins would like to have an opportunity to make a run for the playoffs in the NFC East, inking Vick would be a very good move despite what fans might think.

Put a few wins on the board and Vick will be accepted by the Redskins faithful. Without Vick, like it or not, Washington could be in the cellar when the 2009 season is over and done with.

Vick, as I said in an earlier column, has paid his debt to society and will pay it to the NFL by sitting out five games.

Let those who want to walk a picket line outside of the stadium do so. They weren't going to buy a ticket anyway.

However, if Snyder caves to the pressure of not signing a player that could make or break a season, then it just proves he never should have bought the team in the first place.

I wonder if Snyder speaks with Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos very often?

Jeff Christian is a freelance columnist and his column appears each Sunday in the News & Messenger. He can be reached at christianjeff@rocketmail.com.