The preseason polls in college football may not mean a whole lot, but they do help to emphasize just how many quality matchups we will have in the first two weeks of the season.
The preseason AP Top 25 poll was released on Monday, placing Alabama on top of the preseason poll once again with a large share of the first-place votes (52 in all) to pull away from No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Florida State, and No. 4 USC.
The preseason poll may not mean a whole lot, but there are some trends worth paying attention to. For instance, 10 out of the 13 most recent national champions in college football have started the season in the AP Top 5. That seems like great news for Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, USC, and Clemson fans. Penn State fans will hope this is one of those years with an exception after starting the year No. 6.
The exceptions to the norm in that span have been Auburn in 2010 (Cam Newton and company started the season No. 22) and Alabama in 2013 (of course Alabama was an exception). the last AP No. 1 in the preseason poll to win the national title was USC in 2004, and that one was vacated as a result of the Reggie Bush infractions.
Ten of the last 13 national champions have started the year in the AP Top 5 https://t.co/BtOD23051g
— Zach Barnett (@zach_barnett) August 21, 2017
And perhaps there is good news for the rest of the teams in that top five, because starting the year No. 1 has tended to not fare well for Nick Saban and Alabama. Each of the past three times the Tide have started No. 1, Alabama has failed to win the national championship, as noted by Football Scoop.
Regardless what happens at the end of the year, the stage is now perfectly set for some potentially mega matchups in the first few weeks of the season. The highlight of Week 1, of course, will be the clash of No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Florida State. Getting two teams ranked in the top 3 in the season opener is unheard of, and it came so close to being a 1 vs. 2 matchup. Silly pollsters getting in the way of the narrative. The game could still be a potential preview of the national championship, which will also be played on the same new field in Atlanta. Week 1 also will feature No. 11 Michigan vs. No. 17 Florida in Dallas and No. 21 Virginia Tech squaring off with No. 22 West Virginia in Landover, Maryland.
Week 2 is shaping up to be a pretty good week as well, with No. 2 Ohio State hosting No. 7 Oklahoma in the second game of a home-and-home series. The game will carry some influence on each team’s and conference’s positioning in the College Football Playoff down the line. Remember, part of the reason Ohio State was in the playoff last season was that it scored a road win against Oklahoma, which went on to win the Big 12 and also be excluded from the playoff.
The polls will obviously fluctuate along the way, but if things go according to plan, the Big 12 could have a top 10 showdown between the Sooners and Oklahoma State that could itself be a preview of the Big 12 championship game. And Ohio State vs. Penn State in October has a possibility of being a top five showdown as well, if not top four. The same is true of Florida State-Clemson.
Somewhat surprising is how many Big 12 teams appear in the preseason top 25. The conference is generally regarded as the weakest of the power conferences, yet the Big 12 has one more team in the preseason top 25 (five) than both the Big Ten and Pac-12 (four each). Texas may be getting some benefit of the doubt because of Tom Herman stepping in as the head coach, although the Longhorns should show some improvement this season if they stay healthy. Kansas State and West Virginia coming in at the bottom of the top 25 at No. 20 and No. 22, respectively, feels about right to start the season.
You may notice Notre Dame is absent from the preseason top 25 as well. This is the first season the Irish have not appeared in the preseason AP Top 25 since 2012. That season, the Irish went undefetaed in the regular season and climbed to No. 1 in the BCS rankings and played for the national championship for about four minutes before Alabama rolled right over them. Could there be some magic brewing in South Bend to take the pressure of Brian Kelly? Or will this be a sign of ominous things to come in South Bend?
