The college football AP Top 25 preseason poll was released on Monday, and there are plenty of questions that fans have to be asking as a result.
College football season is on the closest of horizons with full slates of action less than two weeks away. As such, it’s that special time of year in the sport when we finally get an early look at how the top teams in the country will be ranked coming into the season. That’s right, the 2018 AP Top 25 preseason poll was released on Monday.
Of course, looking at the AP Top 25 preseason poll is a somewhat futile exercise. Most of what goes into formulating the rankings is based upon what we see on paper with every team in college football. As the old adage goes, though, the games aren’t played on paper. Subsequently, these rankings are subject to change drastically early in the season should things not play out according to plan.
Regardless, let’s take a look at the college football AP Top 25 preseason poll:
- Alabama
- Clemson
- Georgia
- Wisconsin
- Ohio State
- Washington
- Oklahoma
- Miami
- Auburn
- Penn State
- Michigan State
- Notre Dame
- Stanford
- Michigan
- USC
- TCU
- West Virginia
- Mississippi State
- Florida State
- Virginia Tech
- UCF
- Boise State
- Texas
- Oregon
- LSU
If you’re shocked that Alabama enters yet another season as the top-ranked team in the country, you obviously haven’t been paying that much attention. It’s pretty much an annual tradition at this point that the Crimson Tide will be the No. 1 team in the sport to kick things off. Coming off of a National Championship win, that wasn’t going to change.
Having said that, there are still plenty of other things worth noting from the poll. And with that, let’s get into five knee-jerk reactions from the preseason AP Top 25.
5. Seeing is believing with Michigan
For good reason, there is a lot of hype regarding the Michigan Wolverines entering the 2018 college football season. Jim Harbaugh might have his most well-rounded team yet in his four years in Ann Arbor at his disposal this season. Subsequently, the expectations are for Harbaugh to finally get the Wolverines to the heights that people have been hoping they’d reach since his return to coach his alma mater.
Despite all of this, it’s clear from the preseason AP Top 25 that the voters aren’t buying into the hype-train just yet. Being ranked 14th in the country certainly wouldn’t be a slight to most teams in the nation, but contextually, it’s a message being sent to Michigan. Of the five teams from the Big Ten that appear in the poll, the Wolverines are last in the bunch, falling behind Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State and Wisconsin.
Again, this Wolverines team should be the best that Harbaugh has coached in Ann Arbor. That largely comes down to the quarterback position, which has plagued Michigan since the head coach’s arrival. Ole Miss transfer Shea Patterson coming to town and taking the helm of the offense is expected to change that quickly. And with an elite group of weapons and a stout defense to complement them, things could shape up quite well for Michigan.
In regards to the poll, however, the Wolverines are going to have to prove themselves before voters start buying in. Luckily for them, they’ll have an early chance to do so as their season begins with a matchup against 12th-ranked Notre Dame.