In the world of annual preview publications, it’s never too early to release preseason rankings.

  Or at least partial preseason rankings.

   Athlon Sports is releasing its preseason top 25 one team at a time, and today it unveiled Rutgers as its No. 22 team in the country.

   Athlon named Tiquan Underwood and Courtney Greene to its first-team All-Big East squad. It named Kenny Britt, Kevin Brock, Anthony Davis and Jamaal Westerman second-team All-Big East and Ryan Blaszczyk, Jason McCourty and Dennis Campbell third-team All Big East.

     If I decided that instead of watching a three-way TV rotation tonight of the Celtics, Red Sox and North Carolina and Indiana primary results, I was going to rank all 119 Division I-A teams, then post the rankings on this blog, those rankings would mean as much as the Athlon rankings, Sports Illustrated’s preseason rankings, and the preseason AP, Coaches’ and Harris polls, which is to say, they’d mean absolutely nothing. 

    Remember when Rutgers was ranked 16^th in the country prior to last season? And remember how beating Buffalo, Navy and Norfolk State elevated them to 10^th

     Remember how the rest of the season went?

      By the same token, remember how Rutgers wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen prior to the 2006 season, then came within two points in triple overtime of going to the Orange Bowl?

      Having said that, it’s interesting to see where the various pundits rank Rutgers. And if I were going to take a stab at filling out an ultra-early poll ballot, I’d probably have Rutgers somewhere in the 20s.

     From an expectations standpoint, I think it’s a good place to be. It’s not high enough that anyone’s really gunning for you, but it’s high enough that if you win your first five or six games, you’re going to be in the top 10 and in good BCS position.