2011 NCAA Football Preview - Running Backs

Yesterday we ranked the QBs from top to bottom in every FBS conference in the nation. Today we will look at the RB position. RBs are an equally important part of winning a title. There are plenty of terrific athletes at this position that are ready to make an impact on conference and national championship races.

Here is a conference by conference look at how the RBs rank (The projected starter in parenthesis):

ACC
1. Boston College (Montel Harris)
2. Clemson (Andre Ellington)
3. Virginia Tech (David Wilson)
4. Miami (Lamar Miller)
5. NC State (Mustafa Greene)
6. Florida St. (Chris Thompson)
7. Georgia Tech (Roddy Jones)
8. Maryland (Davin Meggett)
9. Virginia (Perry Jones)
10. North Carolina (Ryan Houston)
11. Wake Forest (Josh Harris)
12. Duke (Desmond Scott)

Big East
1. Louisville (Victor Anderson)
2. Pittsburgh (Ray Graham)
3. Cincinnati (Isaiah Pead)
4. South Florida (Demetrius Murray)
5. Syracuse (Antwon Bailey)
6. West Virginia (Shawne Alston)
7. Rutgers (Jeremy Deering)
8. UConn (DJ Shoemate)

Big 10
1. Wisconsin (Montee Ball)
2. Michigan St. (Edwin Baker)
3. Ohio St. (Jaamal Berry)
4. Nebraska (Rex Burkhead)
5. Illinois (Jason Ford)
6. Penn St. (Silas Redd)
7. Iowa (Marcus Coker)
8. Purdue (Ralph Bolden)
9. Michigan (Vincent Smith)
10. Indiana (Darius Willis)
11. Northwestern (Mike Trumpy)
12. Minnesota (Duane Bennett)

Big 12
1. Texas A&M (Cyrus Gray)
2. Texas (Fozzy Whitaker)
3. Oklahoma St. (Joseph Randle)
4. Oklahoma (Brennan Clay)
5. Kansas St. (Bryce Brown)
6. Kansas (James Sims)
7. Missouri (Kendial Lawrence)
8. Texas Tech (Ronnie Daniels)
9. Baylor (Jarred Salubi)
10. Iowa St. (Shontrelle Johnson)

Pac-12
1. Oregon (LaMichael James)
2. Washington (Chris Polk)
3. Stanford (Stepfan Taylor)
4. UCLA (Johnathan Franklin)
5. USC (Marc Tyler)
6. Cal (Isi Sofele)
7. Arizona (Keola Antolin)
8. Colorado (Rodney Stewart)
9. Arizona St. (Cameron Marshall)
10. Oregon St. (Ryan McCants)
11. Utah (Harvey Langi)
12. Washington St. (Logwone Mitz)

SEC
1. Alabama (Trent Richardson)
2. South Carolina (Marcus Lattimore)
3. Arkansas (Knile Davis)
4. Auburn (Michael Dyer)
5. Mississippi St. (Vic Ballard)
6. Tennessee (Taurean Poole)
7. Florida (Chris Rainey)
8. Georgia (Isaiah Crowell)
9. LSU (Spencer Ware)
10. Vanderbilt (Warren Norman)
11. Ole Miss (Brandon Bolden)
12. Kentucky (Raymond Sanders)

C-USA
1. Houston (Bryce Beall)
2. Southern Miss (Kendrick Hardy)
3. SMU (Zach Line)
4. Tulane (Orleans Darkwa)
5. Rice (Sam McGuffie)
6. Central Florida (Latavius Murray)
7. UAB (Pat Shed)
8. UTEP (Joe Banyard)
9. Marshall (Tron Martinez)
10. Tulsa (Trey Watts)
11. Memphis (Jerrell Rhodes)
12. East Carolina (Michael Dobson)

MAC
1. Temple (Bernard Pierce)
2. Toledo (Adonis Thomas)
3. Ball St. (Eric Williams)
4. Northern Illinois (Jasmin Hopkins)
5. Central Michigan (Paris Cotton)
6. Ohio (Donte Harden)
7. Western Michigan (Tevin Drake)
8. Kent St. (Jacquise Terry)
9. Eastern Michigan (Javonti Greene)
10. Bowling Green
11. Miami (OH) (Tracy Woods)
12. Buffalo (Branden Oliver)
13. Akron (Alex Allen)

MWC
1. San Diego St. (Ronnie Hillman)
2. Boise St. (Doug Martin)
3. TCU (Ed Wesley)
4. Air Force (Asher Clark)
5. UNLV (Tim Cornett)
6. Colorado St. (Raymond Carter)
7. Wyoming (Alvester Alexander)
8. New Mexico (Kasey Carrier)

Sun Belt
1. North Texas (Lance Dunbar)
2. Western Kentucky (Bobby Rainey)
3. Florida International (Darriet Perry)
4. Florida Atlantic (Alfred Morris)
5. Troy (Shawn Southward)
6. Middle Tennessee (DD Kyles)
7. Arkansas St. (Derek Lawson)
8. UL-Monroe (Jyruss Edwards)
9. UL-Lafayette (Aaron Spikes)

WAC
1. Louisiana Tech (Lennon Creer)
2. Utah St. (Robert Turbin)
3. Fresno St. (Robbie Rouse)
4. Nevada (Lampford Mark)
5. Idaho (Ryan Bass)
6. New Mexico St. (Kenny Turner)
7. San Jose St. (Brandon Rutley)
8. Hawaii (Sterling Jackson)

Independents
1. BYU (JJ DiLuigi)
2. Navy (Alexander Teich)
3. Notre Dame (Cierre Wood)
4. Army (Jared Hassin)