With two of the best players in the nation leading the way and a title loss as extra motivation, Alabama is No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason college football poll for the second consecutive year and for the ninth time in the history of the poll.
Reigning Heisman Trophy recipient Bryce Young, national defensive player of the year Will Anderson Jr. and the Crimson Tide earned 54 of 63 first-place votes and 1,566 points in the Top 25 presented by Regions Bank was made public on Monday.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are No. 2 with six first-place votes (1,506 points) from the media panel and the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs are third with three first-place votes (1, 455 points). The Clemson Tigers are No. 4. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish rounds out the top five, setting up a clash of the Titans on the first week of the season at Ohio State on September 3.
Alabama’s preseason No. 1 status is their seventh in the past 15 years since coach Nick Saban has taken over the program. Since the preseason rankings began in 1950, only the University of Oklahoma, with 10 selections, has been No. 1 in the initial poll more frequently than Alabama.
The Crimson Tide came out of the gate last season No. 1 and finished the season ranked No. 2 after dropping the national championship game to their division rival Bulldogs.
Saban recently said that 2021 was a rebuilding campaign for his dynasty, which has been victorious six out of the last 13 years. He has a point. Young was in his first season under center, playing behind a young and inexperienced offensive line. He was not rattled, throwing for 4, 872 yards and 47 touchdowns.
Anderson was a dominating force on the defensive side of the ball, as Alabama trotted out a secondary with the majority being new starters. The sophomore led the country in tackles for loss with 33.5, 11.5 more than No. 2 on the list.
Ohio State retains a Heisman Trophy finalist at quarterback in C.J. Stroud, while at Georgia, most of the contributing players from one of the most highly decorated college defenses of the past quarter century are now in the NFL. Still, signal caller Stetson Bennett and All-American tight end Brock Bowers return to Georgia’s offense that can be even more lethal in 2022.
Texans A&M, who finished last season outside the Top 25, despite giving Alabama its only regular-season defeat, starts this season No. 6 in the polls.
Reining Pac-12 champion Utah is seventh, the best preseason ranking in the program’s history. Defending Big Ten champion Michigan is No. 8 after making the playoff for the first time last year.
Ninth ranked Oklahoma is the highest-ranked Big 12 school, one spot ahead of defending league champion Baylor.
Other noteworthy rankings and steaks include:
• No. 13 North Carolina State is ranked in the preseason poll for the first time since 2003. The Wolfpack matched their best preseason ranking; they were also 13th in 1975.
• No. 17 Pitt is in the preseason rankings for the first time since 2010.
• No. 20 Kentucky is making its first preseason poll appearance since 1978.
• No. 22 Wake Forest made the preseason rankings for the first time since 2008.
• Ohio State is ranked in the preseason for the 34th straight season, breaking a tie with Nebraska (1970-2002) and Penn State (1968-2000) for the longest such streak in poll history.
• Texas A&M has the second-best preseason ranking for a team that finished the previous season unranked. Ohio State was No. 3 in the 1972 preseason poll after being unranked at the end of the 1971 season, and Notre Dame started No. 6 in 1983 after finishing unranked in 1982.
How did the seasons work out for those teams? Ohio State went 9-2 and finished the season No. 9. The Irish went 7-5 and unranked again.
Five schools ranked in the preseason poll have new head coaches at the helm starting their first full season leading their teams: Notre Dame (Marcus Freeman), Oklahoma (Brent Venables), No. 11 Oregon (Dan Lanning), No. 14 USC (Lincoln Riley) and No. 16 Miami (Mario Cristobal).
This is the second time in the past five seasons that five teams with new coaches were ranked in the preseason, according to research done by Sportradar. It also happened in 2018, but before that season, that type of representation in the preseason poll for teams with new coaches was a rarity.
For the fourth straight season, the SEC has three teams in the top six. The Atlantic Coast Conference tied its best showing in the preseason poll with five teams. The ACC has reached that peak for previous times.
