LSU ranked No. 5 in preseason Top 25 poll

The Ohio State Buckeyes rank sixth in the Associated Press preseason poll, which was released Sunday.

As with the Amway Coaches Poll, the media voting in the AP poll picked Alabama No. 1.

Ole Miss is No. 11, followed by Michigan State, TCU, Washington, Houston, UCLA, Iowa, Georgia, Louisville, USC, Oklahoma State, North Carolina, Baylor, Oregon and Florida.

Just like the Coaches Poll, the last time the Vols were ranked in the Top 10 of the AP Poll was back in October of 2006. Michigan State (5), Clemson (12) and Oklahoma (19) joined eventual national champion Alabama (3).

LSU (9-3, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) finished 16th in the national poll after its 56-27 Texas Bowl win versus Texas Tech on December 29, 2015.

Finally, it’s worth taking a quick glance underneath the poll to see who didn’t have enough votes to make it.

OU has now opened the preseason poll inside the top five on 34 different occasions since 1950. The ‘Noles should have either five or six of its opponents ranked inside the top 25, which will lead to a strong strength of schedule on its resume come College Football Playoff and bowl selection time. Alabama is the fourth straight defending champ to start the next season No. 1. It is the second-highest of any school behind Ohio State (63, 94 percent). Only Penn State (34) and Nebraska (33) had longer streaks. The Yellow Jackets, which were No. 16 in last year’s preseason poll, didn’t receive any votes in this year’s poll. Florida set the SEC record by being ranked in 209 consecutive polls from 1990 through 2002.

– No. 2 Clemson has its best ranking in the preseason poll ever. The Wildcats were most recently ranked when they were 22 in the poll of November 11, 2007.