A TRIP TO THE SOUTH: POLL
Defending champ Alabama opens as preseason No. 1; Fighting Irish are ninth
Another college football season will start with everyone chasing the Tide.
Alabama is No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll for the fourth time in the last six seasons.
Coming off their sixth national championship under Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide enter the season loaded with potential replacements for the record-breakers and NFL draft picks who have moved on, including Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith.
Alabama received 47 of 63 first-place votes from the panel of sports writers and broadcasters. Oklahoma is No. 2, just ahead of No. 3 Clemson (each received six firstplace votes).
Ohio State, which lost to the Tide in last season’s championship game, is No. 4 after receiving a first-place vote. Georgia received three first-place votes and rounds out the top five.
The 2020 Buckeyes were emblematic of a bizarre season played through the pandemic, suiting up for only eight games after the Big Ten didn’t kickoff until late October. The season was riddled with postponements, cancellations, and players and coaches missing games across the country because of COVID-19. There was little nonconference play and none among Power Five conference teams.
Amid all the chaos and frustration was a familiar ending: The season came to a close with Alabama on top.
Last year’s Tide staked a claim as the greatest team of the Saban dynasty. Alabama went 13-0, facing 11 SEC teams and playoff showdowns with Notre Dame and Ohio State.
“The challenge is you’ve got to rebuild with a lot of new players who will be younger, have new roles, less experience, and how do they respond to these new roles?” Saban said. “That’s why rebuilding is a tremendous challenge. That’s why it’s very difficult to repeat.”
The most powerful offense in the country lost Smith, quarterback Mac Jones and running back Najee Harris, all firstround draft picks this year. The next wave of blue-chippers stepping into bigger roles includes running back Brian Robinson, receiver John Metchie and quarterback Bryce Young, a former five-star recruit from California.
“Bryce has endless potential,” Saban said.
Since the AP started the preseason poll in 1950, only 11 teams that started No. 1 also ended the season as No. 1. Alabama was the last do it, in 2017, the middle season of three straight in which the Crimson Tide took the preseason top spot. Alabama finished second in 2016 and 2018.
No program faces higher expectations than Alabama going into any season: The Crimson Tide are the only team in the country to start each of the last 13 seasons ranked in the top five. And no program has been better at meeting those expectations: Along with the six national titles, the Tide have three more top-four finishes over the previous 12 years and has never ended a season ranked lower than 10th.
No. 17 Indiana is ranked in the preseason poll for the first time since 1968. The Hoosiers finished last season at No. 12, the second-best final ranking in program history. Indiana has never started and finished a season ranked.