Eight of Cal's 12 Football Opponents Ranked Ahead of Bears by CBS

Golden Bears placed near the bottom of Power Five schools by this preseason ranking of all 130 FBS teams

CBS Sports provided a preseason ranking all 130 FBS schools, and it did not paint a rosy picture for Cal football.

The rankings are based on polling of experts across CBS Sports and 247Sports, and it will be updated weekly throughout the season.

The Bears' starting point does not provide much optimism, although it gives a lot of room for upward mobility. The absence of center Mike Saffell, who recently announced his retirement from football for medical reasons, doesn't help the Bears' prospects, although he notes in the video above that Cal has quality backups on the offensive line.

Cal is ranked 69th in the CBS Sports preseason ranking, which puts the Bears about in the middle of the pack among FBS schools. 

But let's put Cal's place into context in a few categories:

---Cal, which went 1-3 last year, is ranked ninth among Pac-12 schools, and is even behind Colorado and Stanford. Only Oregon State, Washington State and Arizona are ranked lower than Cal.  Five Pac-12 schools are ranked in the top 25, but Cal does not play two of those five this season.

Here are the rankings, in order, of the Pac-12 schools:

9. Oregon

16. USC

20. Washington

22. Utah

24. Arizona State

36. UCLA

48. Stanford

54. Colorado

69. Cal

76. Washington State

83. Oregon State

94. Arizona

---The Bears are ranked 53rd among the 64 teams in Power Five conferences. That is not an omen of impending greatness. Rutgers, Illinois, Michigan State, Washington State, Oregon State, Georgia Tech, Duke, South Carolina, Arizona, Vanderbilt and Kansas are the only Power Five schools ranked lower than Cal.

---San Jose State, Toledo, Ball State and SMU (coached by former Cal head coach Sonny Dykes) are among the Group of Five conference teams ranked ahead of Cal.

---Eight of Cal's 12 opponents in 2021 are ranked higher than Cal's No. 69 spot, and one of the four foes not ranked higher is Sacramento State, an FCS school that is not ranked. Both of Cal's FBS nonconference opponents are ranked higher than Cal.

Here is where the Bears' opponents are ranked, listed in the order that Cal plays each:

44. Nevada (Sept. 4)

29. TCU (Sept. 11)

NA. Sacramento State (Sept. 18)

20. Washington (Sept. 25

76. Washington State (Oct. 2)

9. Oregon (Oct. 15)

54. Colorado (Oct. 23)

83. Oregon State (Oct. 30)

94. Arizona (Nov. 6)

16. USC (Nov. 13)

48. Stanford (Nov. 20)

36. UCLA (Nov. 27)

Cal begins fall practice on Friday (August 6) as it prepares to prove these preseason rankings wrong.

.

Cover photo of Cal football is by Kelley L Cox, USA TODAY Sports

.

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by searching: @si.calsportsreport or going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport