You know how I know we are inching closer to the start of the 2019 college football season? The first of a handful of irrelevant and ultimately meaningless preseason polls has been released.
Yippie?
Very late Thursday morning, USA Today released its annual preseason coaches’ poll. Sitting at the apex of the initial Top 25 of the 2019 college football season is defending College Football Playoff champion Clemson, with the Tigers receiving 59 of the 65 first-place votes. The other six first-place nods went to the team Clemson beat for the 2018 national championship, Alabama.
No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Ohio State round out the Top Five, while No. 6 LSU, No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Florida, No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 10 Texas finish off the Top Ten.
The aforementioned schools represent four of the five Power Five conferences; the highest-ranked of the fifth, the Pac-12, is Washington at No. 12. Still, there are five total schools from the Pac-12 in the first Top 25, which trails only the Big Ten’s seven and the SEC’s six. Among the other two Power Five conferences, the Big 12 placed three and the ACC two.
The Big Ten, incidentally, nearly added an eighth as Nebraska finished tops in the “others receiving votes” category.
The highest-ranked Group of Five school -- in fact, the only G5 squad on the list -- is UCF, which comes in tied for 17th with Wisconsin.
This poll marks the first time since 2015 that Alabama will head into a season as something other than the top-ranked team according to the coaches. Additionally, this will be the first time since 20108, and just the second time since 1990, that Florida State will start a campaign unranked.
Conversely, Iowa State, at No. 24, is a preseason Top 25 school for the first time in the program’s history.
1. Clemson (1,619 points)
2. Alabama (1,566)
3. Georgia (1447)
4. Oklahoma (1415)
5. Ohio State (1368)
6. LSU (1,218)
7. Michigan (1,155)
8. Florida (1,103)
9. Notre Dame (1,100)
10. Texas (1,038)
11. Texas A&M (893)
12. Washington (834)
13. Oregon (787)
14. Penn State (699)
15. Utah (642)
16. Auburn (606)
17. Wisconsin (436)
17. Central Florida (436)
19. Iowa (343)
20. Michigan State (313)
21. Washington State (274)
22. Syracuse (227)
23. Stanford (200)
24. Iowa State (169)
25. Northwestern (161)
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Nebraska 152; Boise State 118; Mississippi State 111; Miami 94; Army 91; Kentucky 79; Virginia Tech 64; Texas Christian 63; Southern California 47; Utah State 32; Fresno State 32; Virginia 30; Cincinnati 25; West Virginia 24; Memphis 24; Oklahoma State 20; South Carolina 15; NC State 12; Duke 10; Boston College 5; Florida State 4; Baylor 4; Appalachian State 4; North Texas 3; Houston 3; UCLA 2; Temple 2; Arizona State 2; Troy 1; Tennessee 1; Mississippi 1; Minnesota 1.
And, for those who are curious, here is the list of 65 support staffers head coaches who will vote for the Top 25 this season:
- Chris Ash, Rutgers
- Dino Babers, Syracuse
- Craig Bohl, Wyoming
- Jeff Brohm, Purdue
- Neal Brown, West Virginia
- Troy Calhoun, Air Force
- Steve Campbell, South Alabama
- Rod Carey, Temple
- Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina
- Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech
- David Cutcliffe, Duke
- Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
- Butch Davis, Florida International
- Ryan Day, Ohio State
- Manny Diaz, Miami (Fla.)
- Dana Dimel, UTEP; Dave Doeren, NC State
- Sonny Dykes, SMU
- Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
- Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
- James Franklin, Penn State
- Hugh Freeze, Liberty
- Willie Fritz, Tulane
- Scott Frost, Nebraska
- Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech
- Thomas Hammock, Northern Illinois
- Bryan Harsin, Boise State
- Clay Helton, USC
- Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky
- Tom Herman, Texas
- Doc Holliday, Marshall
- Jay Hopson, Southern Miss
- Mike Houston, East Carolina
- Mike Leach, Washington State
- Lance Leipold, Buffalo
- Tim Lester, Western Michigan
- Chip Lindsey, Troy
- Seth Littrell, North Texas
- Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green
- Rocky Long, San Diego State
- Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern
- Gus Malzahn, Auburn
- Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio)
- Doug Martin, New Mexico State
- Jeff Monken, Army
- Phillip Montgomery, Tulsa
- Dan Mullen, Florida
- Ken Niumatalolo, Navy
- Ed Orgeron, LSU
- Gary Patterson, TCU
- Chris Petersen, Washington
- Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
- Matt Rhule, Baylor
- Nick Saban, Alabama
- Tony Sanchez, UNLV
- Kirby Smart, Georgia
- Jonathan Smith
- Oregon State
- Frank Solich, Ohio
- Jake Spavital, Texas State
- Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee
- Kevin Sumlin, Arizona
- Dabo Swinney, Clemson
- Jeff Tedford, Fresno State
- Matt Wells, Texas Tech
- Kyle Whittingham, Utah.