Buckeyes make history as first unanimous No. 1 in AP poll

It is true: The preseason rankings are just a best guesstimate of how well teams will play this season.

Clemson is one of 11 schools with the same preseason ranking by the Associated Press and USA Today. OSU, Michigan State, and Wisconsin at No. 20 were the only Big Ten schools ranked in the preseason. No. 10 Baylor was the first team out. A rejuvenated passing game has been the top story of Mizzou’s preseason camp, including the promising performances of young quarterbacks Marvin Zanders and Drew Lock, who are competing with Eddie Printz for the backup job to returning starter Maty Mauk.

TCU, Alabama, Baylor and Michigan State rounded out the top five.

The Seminoles, who open the season at home September 5 against Texas State, are one of three ACC teams in the poll. Last year, the top four were Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama and Florida State.

With the on-going controversy surrounding players challenging universities and college’s right to use images of student-athletes for commercial purposes, Ohio State is only making two jersey numbers available this year.

Finley had the most experience of the four hopefuls after appearing in five games last season as a redshirt freshman. Tech has been included eight times since coach Bobby Dodd’s retirement after the 1966 season.

Preseason rankings in college football are useless, some say.

The previous highest percentage of first-place votes in a preseason AP poll was 96.7 percent for Alabama in 2013 and Florida in 2009, with 58 of 60 first-place votes.

The Horned Frogs checked in at second, 97 votes behind unanimous No. 1 team Ohio State.

The poll, in which media members across the country rank the top 25 college football teams heading into the season, begins September 3. The last two times they started at No. 1 (1998, 2006) they ended up at No. 2 when it was all said and done.