The women’s college season has returned, and so has the TopDrawerSoccer.com Tournament 64 National Ranking. In our initial offering, the Stanford Cardinal get the nod as a favorite to defend their national title.

A number of other familiar names also appear in the top 10, including last year’s national runners-up Duke, the  Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 2011 College Cup participants Wake Forest and Florida State, and new SEC member Texas A&M.

The Tournament 64 National Ranking is a one-of-a-kind effort to rank the top women’s college soccer teams and also project the post-season NCAA Tournament field, including all of the automatic qualifiers from 30 eligible Division I conferences. The ranking is updated every Monday morning through the season.

You can see the full tournament 64 ranking here.