Echoing the coaches' poll from earlier in the month, the defending champion Crimson Tide are number one in the first AP poll of the season, collecting 58 of the possible 60 first-place votes. This is the fourth time Alabama has sat at number one in the preseason, also achieving the distinction in 1966, 1978 and 2010.
The other first place votes went to Ohio State (who received three first-place votes in the coaches' poll) and Georgia (which lost nearly every defensive player of note from last year's team and in should no way be considered a preseason number one but hey it's August so who cares). Texas A&M received a first place vote in the coaches' poll, but the AP likes them just a little less (because of the possibility of a Manziel suspension looming, perhaps?), placing the Aggies at seven instead of six. They swap spots with conference mate South Carolina, the only difference between the top ten of the AP and coaches.
If you wonder how set in stone the convention wisdom in college football is, consider this: Both the coaches and AP poll have the exact same 25 teams, and of those 25 teams, only six teams are in different spots. A thousand monkeys could vote on a thousand ballots and have a hard time making UCLA, Northwestern, Wisconsin, USC and Oregon State numbers 21 through 25 in identical polls. Way to be original, everyone.
Here are the full rankings for your perusal:
1. Alabama (58)
2. Ohio State (1)
3. Oregon
4. Stanford
5. Georgia (1)
6. South Carolina
7. Texas A&M
8. Clemson
9. Louisville
10. Florida
11. Florida State
12. LSU
13. Oklahoma State
14. Notre Dame
15. Texas
16. Oklahoma
17. Michigan
18. Nebraska
19. Boise State
20. TCU
21. UCLA
22. Northwestern
23. Wisconsin
24. USC
25. Oregon State
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