For the third year in a row, Alabama is No. 1 in the AP preseason Top 25.
Alabama will begin its quest for a second consecutive national championship with a rare threepeat.
Alabama is just the second team to be ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll for three straight seasons. Alabama received 42 out of 61 first-place votes.
No. 2 Clemson received 18 first-place votes. Georgia is No. 3 and Wisconsin is fourth. The Badgers received one first-place vote. Ohio State was ranked No. 5.
The preseason AP poll started in 1950 and since then only Oklahoma from 1985-87 had started No. 1 in three straight years until now.
Ring up another milestone for coach Nick Saban’s Tide dynasty. Alabama has won five national championships since 2009 and has been No. 1 to start the season five times under Saban. Last season was the first time Saban’s team started and finished the season No. 1.
The Tide enter this season with a question at quarterback, but there appears to be two good answers from which Saban has to choose.
Tua Tagovailoa won the College Football Playoff championship game against Georgia with a second-half comeback and overtime touchdown pass. Jalen Hurts has led the Tide to the national title game in each of his two seasons as a starter.
Ohio St. board to convene
Ohio State trustees set a private meeting for Wednesday to talk about the future of coach Urban Meyer as the university seeks to quickly move past a scandal that has consumed the football program for nearly a month.
Meyer has been the subject of an investigation into the handling of domestic-abuse allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith.
The university said factfinders briefed the board Monday. The panel will convene in a public session Wednesday morning before going behind closed doors to discuss the next steps. President Michael V. Drake will have the final say on whether Meyer keeps his job or faces other consequences.
No timetable was given for resolution of the matter, which has overshadowed the team’s preparation for the 2018 season.
Michigan picks Patterson as QB
No. 14 Michigan will start quarterback Shea Patterson in the season opener at No. 12 Notre Dame on Sept. 1.
Coach Jim Harbaugh made the announcement Monday. He had earlier said Patterson was simply one of four quarterbacks competing to take the first snap, along with Brandon Peters, Dylan McCaffrey and Joe Milton.
Most expected the decision would be to start the experienced Patterson, who appealed to the NCAA to play this season after transferring from Mississippi. He threw for 3,000-plus yards with 23 touchdowns and 12 interceptions over 10 starts at Ole Miss.
Peters started four games for Michigan last season.
Colo. St. coach still in hospital
Colorado State coach Mike Bobo remains hospitalized while doctors try to figure out why he has numbness in his feet and his coaching staff prepares for the Rams’ opener against Hawaii this weekend.
Athletic director Joe Parker said Monday that Bobo has been transferred from Fort Collins to another hospital in Denver and continues to seek answers to his medical condition but “there is an expectation that any day now he could be discharged.”
Offensive coordinator Dave Johnson said the coaching staff is unsure who would call plays if Bobo is unable to be on the sideline Saturday night.
Odds and ends
Wisconsin wide receiver Quintez Cephus was charged with felony sexual assault Monday, accused of misconduct involving two women at his apartment last April. Cephus, 20, a junior from Macon, Ga., was suspended by the team shortly after he was charged with third-degree sexual assault and seconddegree sex assault of an intoxicated victim. Cephus is healthy again after breaking his right leg last November. He led the team in 2016 with six touchdown catches. …
The district attorney in Baton Rouge, La., says a woman who had said LSU receiver Drake Davis physically and psychologically abused her has changed her statement. East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore says the woman’s changed statement has “no effect on the facts in the case.” Evidence collected by police includes photos of bruises and a threatening text message. Davis is suspended from the football team indefinitely. …
Minnesota has tabbed true freshman walk-on Zack Annexstad as the starting quarterback to open the season.