Alabama No. 1, Clemson No. 2 in AP preseason Top 25

The top four spots are identical to those in the preseason coaches’ poll released earlier this month. Clemson, which lost a thrilling College Football Playoff championship game to Alabama in January, received 16 first-place votes. Clemson received 16 first-place votes and 1,443 points. Oklahoma, which was beaten by Clemson 37-17 in the Orange Bowl, is No. 3 and received four first-place votes. He fell to Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-5, ending his career-best winning streak at 22 matches. The South Florida Bulls earned some votes to receive honorable mention. The Pac-12 had five teams in the top 25, the Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 had four apiece, the American Athletic had one and there was one independent team. Since 1999, only two teams that have started the season No. 1 in both the AP and coaches polls – Florida State in 1999 and USC in 2004 (which was later vacated) – have gone on to win the national title. The most recent AP poll that did not include Alabama is the final one of the 2007 season. Miami’s run of seven straight from ’86 to ’92 is second.

As usual, the expectations for Alabama are sky-high. Anything short of a fifth National Championship in eight years would be a disappointment for most fans. While that might be insane to comprehend, it is the level the program has risen to under Saban. Tennessee is making its 40 preseason-poll appearance this year, the 10-most among all schools. It’s a holdover until the selection committee releases its first official ranking on November 1. I don’t buy that for a second.

With the college football season coming within the weeks, football fans can’t wait for September to come to mark the beginning of the 2016 college football season.

The top three ranked teams didn’t feature much in the way of anything shocking or surprising but there were some eye-popping results further down in the poll.

However, a two-game losing streak after that knocked them out. No matter the outcomes, there will be a massive shakeup from week 1 to 2. The Tide saw Blake Sims make his first start in 2014 before Jake Coker made his starting debut last season.

Three of LSU’s 2016 opponents were featured in the preseason poll, including Alabama, Ole Miss and Florida.