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Another college football season will begin with everyone chasing the tide.
Alabama is No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll for the fourth time in the past six seasons.
Following their sixth national championship under Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide enter the season loaded with potential substitutes for NFL records and draft picks that have moved on, including Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith.
Alabama received 47 of the 63 first-place votes from the panel of sports writers and broadcasters in the survey presented by Regions Bank. Oklahoma is # 2, just ahead of Clemson # 3 (each received six first place votes).
Ohio State, which lost to the Tide in last season’s championship game, is No. 4 after receiving a vote for first place. Georgia received three first place votes and rounds out the top five.
The 2020 Buckeyes were iconic of a bizarre season played during the pandemic, only going for eight games after the Big Ten kicked off before the end of October. The season has been fraught with postponements, cancellations and missing players and coaches across the country due to COVID-19. There were few non-conference games and none among the Power 5 conference teams.
Amid all the chaos and frustration was a familiar ending: the season ended with Alabama in the lead.
Last year’s tide established itself as the biggest team in the Saban dynasty. Alabama went 13-0, facing 11 teams in the Southeastern Conference and playoff games with Notre Dame and Ohio State.
The country’s most powerful offense has lost Smith, quarterback Mac Jones and running back Najee Harris, all NFL first-round picks this year. The next wave of blue-chippers stepping into bigger roles include running back Brian Robinson, wide receiver John Metchie and quarterback Bryce Young, a former five-star rookie from California.
Since the AP began the preseason poll in 1950, only 11 teams that started No.1 have also finished the season as No.1. Alabama were the last to do so, in 2017. , the three-game midseason in which the Crimson Tide took over. first place in the preseason. Alabama finished second in 2016 and 2018.
No program faces higher expectations than Alabama at the start of a season: The Crimson Tide are the only team in the country to start each of the past 13 seasons ranked in the top five.
And no program has lived up to those expectations better: With all six domestic titles, Tide have three more top-four rankings over the past 12 years and have never completed a season ranked below 10th.
SURVEY POINTS
• Alabama is now tied with Ohio State for the second-highest preseason standings with eight. Oklahoma has the most with 10.
• Only two teams became the nation’s number one team in a season. Southern California was the last in 2004, with Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart. The first was the unbeaten Florida State in 1999, possibly the best team of the Bobby Bowden era. Bowden passed away earlier this month at the age of 91.
• The 8th Cincinnati of the American Athletic Conference is the first team outside the Power Five leagues to be placed in the preseason top 10 since Louisville started ninth in 2012. It was the Cardinals’ last season as a as a member of the AAC before joining the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Bearcats, reigning AAC champions, have the best preseason standings for a non-Power Five or BCS conference team since Boise State was No.5 in early 2011. The Mountain West Broncos finished this. season n ° 8.
RARITIES AND FIRSTS
• Sun Belt rivals No.22 Coastal Carolina and No.23 Louisiana-Lafayette are ranked for the first time in the preseason poll. This is the first time that the conference has had teams classified in the preseason.
• No. 7 Iowa State is ranked in the preseason for the third straight season after having only one previous appearance in the preseason poll (1978). The Cyclones had never been better classified than 20th to start a season. They have also never been ranked higher at any time than the No.8 which they reached last year on their way to ninth place.
• The North Carolina No.10 has his best preseason ranking since being No.7 in 1997 when Coach Mack Brown made his first stint with the Tar Heels.
• The 17th Indiana is ranked in the preseason poll for the first time since 1968. The Hoosiers finished 12th last season, the second-highest final ranking in program history. Indiana has never started and finished a ranked season.
CONFERENCE CALL
Texas A&M No.6 starts off with their best preseason ranking since 1995, when the Aggies were No.3. Coach Jimbo Fisher’s team also gives the SEC three teams in the top six, joining Alabama. and Georgia.
Breakdown by conference:
SEC: 5 (Nos. 1, 5, 6, 13, 16).
Big Ten: 5 (Nos. 4, 12, 17, 18, 19).
Pac-12: 5 (Nos. 11, 15, 20, 24, 25).
CAC: 3 (Nos 3, 10, 14).
Large 12: 3 (No.2, 7, 21).
Sun belt: 2 (Nos 22, 23).
American: 1 (no.8).
Independent: 1 (n ° 9).
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