When does the 2016 College Football Preseason AP Poll get released?
By John Buhler
The 2016 NCAA football season begins Labor Day weekend. When is the 2016 College Football Preseason AP Poll release date?
College football fans all across the country are bursting at the seams in anticipation for what expects to be another exciting NCAA football season in Division in 2016. The 2016 NCAA campaign begins on August 25th when the California Golden Bears play the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in Sydney, Australia. However, the bulk of Week 1’s games is coming during Labor Day Weekend (September 1-4) stateside.
Entering the third year of the College Football Playoff era in Division I, fans of many teams in the Power 5 are clamoring for their team’s right to play in the National Semifinals. It’s all about winning a conference championship is this era of college football, but getting a favorable position in the initial AP Poll can only help. So when does the AP publish its preseason Top 25 poll anyway?
According to the AP, the Associated Press will release its initial Top 25 on Sunday, August 21. Interestingly, this first AP Poll will come just a few weeks after the AP decides for the first time to publish its first all-time college football ranking, taking into account all the traditional programs dating back to the AP’s first poll on October 19, 1936, with the Minnesota Golden Gophers as its first No. 1.
While the all-time rankings sound intriguing, what college football fans really care about is where their team stacks up entering Week 1 of the 2016 NCAA season. Teams that are in position possibly get that first No. 1 overall ranking in the AP Top 25 include the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Clemson Tigers, the Stanford Cardinal, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Ohio State Buckeyes, and even the Michigan Wolverines.
The first No. 1 could very well be defending national champion Alabama, but both Clemson and Stanford are the two most likely programs to be No. 1 at the start of the year if for whatever reason it isn’t Alabama.
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