Earlier this month, the coaches in the USA Today‘s preseason poll made the Oklahoma Sooners their overwhelming preseason No. 1. Just over two weeks later, the Associated Press has done the same as well.
With 36 of the 60 first-place votes, the Sooners will enter the 2011 season at No. 1 in the rankings of the media voters. It’s the 10th time in the program’s history they’ve entered a season at the top of the AP rankings.
Alabama comes in at No. 2 having received 17 first-place votes. Others receiving first place votes were No. 3 Oregon (4), No. 4 LSU (1) and No. 5 Boise State (2)
Rounding out the Top Ten are Florida State, Stanford, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Nebraska at 6-10, respectively.
The most interesting name in the AP‘s preseason poll? USC, which is not eligible for the coaches’ poll due to their NCAA issues, is the No. 25 team in the country according to the media. Defending national champion Auburn is No. 23, one spot lower than they began the 2010 season.
As expected, the SEC leads all conferences with eight schools in the Top 25, followed by the Big Ten and Big 12 with four apiece; three for the Pac-12; two each for the Mountain West and ACC; and one for the Big East. Notre Dame is the lone independent school in the preseason mix, coming in at No. 16. Incidentally, the eight SEC schools is an all-time record for a preseason AP poll.
Five teams that weren’t ranked in the final AP poll after the 2010 season find themselves inside the Top 25 to start 2011: the aforementioned Notre Dame and USC, along with Georgia (No. 19), Florida (No. 22) and West Virginia (No. 24).
On the flip side is Texas, which, coming off an abysmal 5-7 season a year ago, is unranked in a preseason poll for the first time since 1998. That was Mack Brown‘s first season in Austin.
Below is the complete AP Top 25 rankings. And, for all of your polling needs, please visit our comprades at NBC Sports.com by clicking HERE. Oh, and you can also check out CFT’s preseason Top 25, which bears little resemblance to eith er the AP’s or the coaches’ poll.
Anyway, here’s the AP rankings:
