Alabama gets 52 of 61 No. 1 poll votes

Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts (2) runs in to score a touchdown against Auburn defensive lineman Carl Lawson during the first half of the Iron Bowl NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts (2) runs in to score a touchdown against Auburn defensive lineman Carl Lawson during the first half of the Iron Bowl NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

FAYETTEVILLE -- It's not just the rest of the SEC West trying to catch up to Alabama, it's the rest of the country.

Alabama is not the defending national champion, as it has been four times in the past eight years, but the Crimson Tide will still open the season at No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25, which was released on Monday.

The Crimson Tide is the first team since Southern Cal in 2005 to claim the top spot in the AP preseason media poll two years in a row. Alabama received 52 first-place votes among the 61 ballots cast by a nationwide media panel.

Three other teams split the remaining nine first-place votes.

No. 2 Ohio State received three first-place votes. No. 3 Florida State, which will open the season against Alabama on Sept. 2 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, got four first-place votes.

The Seminoles-Crimson Tide matchup marks the fourth time two top-five teams have opened the season and the first time two teams in the top three have met.

No. 4 Southern Cal, which won its final nine games in 2016, was first on two ballots.

Defending champion Clemson, which defeated Alabama 35-31 in last years' College Football Playoff championship game, was No. 5. The Tigers, who must replace quarterback DeShaun Watson, are followed in the Top 10 by Penn State, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin and Oklahoma State.

The Huskies, starting with their best ranking since being No. 4 in the preseason poll of 1997, joined Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State in last year's CFP playoffs.

The Buckeyes will start the season at No. 2 in the AP poll for the eighth time, one behind Oklahoma for starting in that position.

Alabama is preseason AP No. 1 for the sixth time, tying Florida State and Nebraska for fifth-most all time. Oklahoma has been No. 1 in the AP poll 10 times, the last time coming in 2011, while Ohio State has been No. 1 eight times and USC seven.

The Crimson Tide have won four national championships under Coach Nick Saban, in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015, but none of those came when Alabama was preseason No. 1.

The Crimson Tide extended their streak of top 5 preseason rankings to nine years, second to Florida State, which made the top 5 for 11 consecutive years under Coach Bobby Bowden.

Eight SEC teams received votes from the panel, but Arkansas was not one of them. The Razorbacks, coming off a 7-6 finish, will face three teams in the poll in addition to TCU, which was the first team listed among the other teams receiving votes. The Razorbacks open their season next Thursday in Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium against Florida A&M, which opens at home on Saturday against Texas Southern.

The SEC leads the way with six teams in the poll, with No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 LSU, No. 15 Georgia, No. 17 Florida and No. 25 Tennessee following Alabama. Kentucky and Texas A&M were among the 19 teams also receiving votes.

The Atlantic Coast and Big 12 have five teams each in the poll, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 have four each. The American Athletic Conference has the only team in the poll not from a Power 5 conference team with No. 19 South Florida.

The Bulls, led by Arkansas native Charlie Strong (Batesville) in his first season, are coming off an 11-2 season with quarterback Quinton Flowers returning. South Florida is ranked in the AP preseason poll for only the second time. The Bulls were also No. 19 in 2008.

The state of Florida, represented by No. 3 Florida State, No. 17 Florida, No. 18 Miami and No. 19 South Florida, has four teams in the preseason poll for the first time.

Miami Coach Mark Richt said Monday he believes being ranked this early is a positive for the Hurricanes.

"It's a popularity poll right now. No one really knows for sure and they base it on returning starters and how you finished last year," Richt said. "If you tend to win a bowl game, you're more apt to get ranked in the fall. That's pretty typical. It does, like you said, matter most at the end. But I'm not mad that we're ranked. I think that's good for us."

Expectations are high for the Hurricanes. In 2016, Miami closed a 9-4 season -- its first under Richt -- with five consecutive victories. That included a 31-14 victory over then 12th-ranked West Virginia in the Russell Athletic Bowl, Miami's first postseason victory in a decade.

Miami, which opens with Bethune Cookman on Sept. 2, travels to Jonesboro to play Arkansas State on Sept. 9, with Florida State popping up on Sept. 16.

No. 6 Penn State will open with its highest ranking since the Nittany Lions were No. 3 in 1999.

No. 9 Wisconsin, in its third season under former Bret Bielema assistant Paul Chryst, has its highest preseason ranking since it was No. 7 in 2007, Bielema's second season as head coach of the Badgers.

Coming off a 12-1 season, the Badgers won their first five games in 2007. They were ranked No. 5 when they traveled to Illinois but fell from the unbeaten ranks with a 31-26 loss.

"We have a really good senior class, a lot of guys that have played in a lot of big games," Chryst said of his latest team. "But I think together we've just got to make sure we keep our focus where it should be."

No. 24 Washington State, in its sixth season under Coach Mike Leach, is in the preseason poll for the fifth time, the first since the Cougars were No. 11 in 2002 under Mike Price.

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Information in this article was contributed by The Associated Press.

Sports on 08/22/2017

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