Badgers football: UW ranked No. 18 in USA Today Amway Coaches Poll

Defending national champion Ohio State was the obvious, and near unanimous, preseason No. 1 pick in the USA Today college football coaches poll.

That’s according to the USA Today/Amway preseason coaches’ poll, which was released Thursday morning. Still, it’s a strong endorsement for the Buckeyes as they try to become the first team to start and finish a season atop the rankings since Southern California in 2004.

Three other Gophers’ opponents this fall also received votes: Nebraska (27), Illinois (7) and Michigan (1).

Ohio State begins the season the way it ended last season – ranked No. 1.

Alabama, the reigning SEC champion, is third and one of eight SEC teams in the Amway Top 25, including Auburn, seventh; Georgia, ninth; LSU, 13th; Ole Miss, 15th; Arkansas, 20th; Missouri, 23rd; and Tennessee, 25th. After winning its first two games against North Carolina State and Georgia State that season to breach the Top 25, the Vols lost to Florida 37-20 on September 15 and never returned to the top 25 in a 5-7 campaign.

Notre Dame will also host No. 17 Georgia Tech on September 19 and travel to play No. 21 Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., on November 28.

After being left out of the 2014 College Football Playoff despite an 11-1 record, the TCU Horned Frogs have a chip on their shoulder heading into 2015. No where to be found in the top 25. The Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference and Pacific 12 Conference have two top-10 teams each.

Ohio State comes in at No. 1 in the nation with Michigan State and Wisconsin ranking No. 6 and No. 18 respectively.

The lack of Sun Belt votes is even sadder when you consider that six of the league’s coaches vote in the poll. Don’t worry about the four suspended players for the opener against VT, they’ll still win by 20.