2017 College Football Preseason AP Top 25 Rankings Released
Posted by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @RyanWrightRNG
The college football season is finally here! After what seemed like an eternity since the 2016 College Football Playoff showcased Alabama taking out Washington 24-7 and Clemson rolling past Ohio State 31-0. The season was capped in thrilling fashion with Clemson taking home the trophy after upending No. 1 Alabama 35-31 in the title game. The preseason Associated Press Poll is finally out putting added pressure on Alabama to claim their fifth national championship (2009, ’11, ’12, and ’15) nine years and return to the championship round again, but, more importantly, the rankings are a signal to college football fans time has come.
The season begins on Saturday, Aug. 26, with a handful of games scheduled: Oregon State vs. Colorado State, Portland State vs. BYU, and Hawaii vs. Massachusetts. The big games of the weekend are No. 19 South Florida vs. San Jose State and No. 14 Stanford vs. Rice.
The full slate of college football games begins on Thursday, Aug. 31, with games through Sunday. Fans will have a few meaty games to sink their pigskin hungry teeth into with three games featuring ranked teams squaring off; No. 11 Michigan vs. No. 17 Florida, No. 22 West Virginia vs. No. 21 Virginia Tech, but none are bigger than No. 3 Florida State vs. No. 1 Alabama.
Before the preseason polls take on their first shakeup of the year after Week 1, voters have confidence that Alabama can be the first team since USC in 2004 to go wire to wire starting off as the No. 1 squad in the land finishing with a title in hand. If the Crimson Tide is capable of making the run, they will have to go through a conference that starts off with six ranked teams, the most of any FBS conference. Behind the SEC, the ACC and Big 12 have five ranked teams and the Big Ten and Pac-12 fill in the poll with four teams each.
While the SEC may have the upper-hand on number of ranked teams, the ACC has two in the Top 5; No. 3 Florida State and No. 5 Clemson. The Big Ten lays claim to three in the Top 10; No. 2 Ohio State, No. 6 Penn State, and No. 9 Wisconsin. The Pac-12 and Big 12 both have two squads in the Top 10; No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 10 Oklahoma State out of the Big 12 and No. 4 USC and No. 8 Washington in the Pac-12.
No matter how accurate or inaccurate the AP rankings may be to start the season, watching everything play out is the thrill.
Preseason AP Top 25 (first-place votes in parenthesis)
- Alabama (52)
- Ohio State (3)
- Florida State (4)
- USC (2)
- Clemson
- Penn State
- Oklahoma
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Oklahoma State
- Michigan
- Auburn
- LSU
- Stanford
- Georgia
- Louisville
- Florida
- Miami
- South Florida
- Kansas State
- Virginia Tech
- West Virginia
- Texas
- Washington State
- Tennessee
Others receiving votes: TCU (98), Utah (85), Notre Dame (65), Boise State (37), N.C. State (26), Northwestern (25), Pittsburgh (23), Oregon (21), Houston (19), Colorado (18), UCLA (9), San Diego State (9), BYU (5), Appalachian State (4), Nebraska (4), Tulsa (4), Kentucky (3), Texas A&M (3), Michigan State (1).
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Photo credit: AP; No. 9 Bo Scarbrough scores a TD vs. Clemson in 2016 title game