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It is too early to start taking any national rankings too seriously but the Sun Devils are receiving some early recognition. These rankings are not the Coaches Poll or the AP poll so they shouldn't be given much weight. However they can be a good indication to where the Sun Devils might land when the first round of legitimate polls come out.
Note that all of these are simply rankings and not actual polls. This is the opinion of one person or very few people sitting in a room putting these together. This is not a large sample size of people who follow college football religiously being asked for their opinion in a formal balloting process, as is the case with the AP and Coaches Poll.
Athlon Sports put Arizona State at No. 16 in its 2014 preseason rankings. Other Pac-12 teams that received recognition include USC at No. 14, Stanford at No. 12, UCLA at No. 7 and Oregon at No. 6. Notre Dame, which will visit Tempe this season on Nov. 8 is ranked No. 13.
The Sporting News, a much more well known sports magazine and outlet, put out its preseason top 25 rankings as well. The Sun Devils slid into the No. 13 spot here. The University of Washington came in at No. 21, USC at No. 16, Notre Dame at No. 14 and UCLA at No. 8. They also seemed to think a lot higher of Stanford and Oregon ranking them No. 6 and No. 2 respectively.
CBS Sports rankings labeled a "guess" at the 2014 preseason top 25 immediately after last year's national championship game had Arizona State ranked at No. 21. Sports Illustrated also had the Sun Devils at No. 21 in its "way too early" rankings. Matt Brown over at Sports on Earth gave the Sun Devils the highest ranking at No. 12.
CBS Sports also put a bowl projections piece out which has the maroon and gold playing Boise State in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 20.
In the final AP poll last season Arizona State finished at No. 20 and the afore mentioned publications seem to think that the Sun Devils should land around the same spot when the first round of formal polls come out before the season starts.