Like a thief in the night, the women’s college season snuck up on us. After a seemingly interminable offseason, it’s now only days away.

In the midst of the preseason individual predictions and top 25s, the most heated arguments tend to revolve around predictive national champs. Namely, can Florida State repeat? If not, who’ll knock them off their perch? A dark horse from outside the beltway, or a well-known contender with a name brand?

Those are the wider questions we’re asking ourselves this year. Which is why, with the season on the doorstep, we’ll take a look now at the top five candidates to lift the national championship trophy in December. Today, we focus on those name brands at the top of the heap. If somebody wins a national championship this year, it’ll likely be one of these five.