Don't tell Clemson coach Dabo Swinney rankings don't matter.

He vouched for respect all season for his defending national champion football team, except in the preseason.

“Unless they bring us a trophy and tear the concrete out over there and put the preseason champs up there, I don’t think we’re going to do that,” Swinney said last August when Clemson was the preseason No. 1 for the first time in program history. “So it just doesn’t matter. That’s probably the only con is it just creates conversation that’s unnecessary because it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.

"All you’ve gotta do is take the last 10 years the preseason polls and a lot of those teams in the top five don’t even finish ranked."

With the 2019 college football season set to finish up Monday night in New Orleans, it's never too early too look ahead to which teams will be the nation's best next fall, a somewhat predictable glance at contenders followed by a handful of programs with a shot if all falls into place.

In a story that will be updated throughout the offseason leading into fall practice, here's a first look at our Way-Too-Early Preseason Top 25 for 2020 in college football. A previous version of this ranking has been updated to include the Iowa Hawkeyes coming off back-to-back seasons ranked inside the Top 25: