Following its national championship season and returning so many starters, Miami is deserving as the top-ranked team in the ESPN/USA Today preseason coaches' poll. It's amazing to think the Hurricanes had five players picked in the first round of the NFL Draft, yet they are still the nation's No. 1 team.

Until a game is played, the Hurricanes should be No. 1, but they face a long stretch. Not only will they be marked as the reigning champions, but they also will be playing the toughest non-conference schedule I have ever seen, including games at Tennessee, at Florida and at home against Florida State.

There are four Big 12 teams in the top eight, and Kansas State and Texas A&M will end up spending time in the top 25 as well. Within the last year or so, the Big 12 is finally emerging as a premier conference. The conference has a lot of depth, one with both top 10 teams and some ranked in the top 25 or close to it.

Everybody feels there are five teams -- on paper -- that are a cut above every other team, and they are the teams ranked in the preseason top five: Miami, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida State and Tennessee. And each of the five has a game against another top-five team -- Florida State plays Miami, Miami plays Tennessee and Oklahoma plays Texas.

Mark Oct. 12 on your calendar -- the Oklahoma-Texas and Florida State-Miami matchups come on the same day. Both games will be marquee matchups and have big national championship implications.

It will be interesting to see which teams survive and whether or not there will be an unbeaten team at the end of the season. I would be surprised if there were more than one unbeaten team.

Kirk Herbstreit is an analyst for ESPN's College GameDay.