COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio State Buckeyes landed the No. 2 spot in the Associated Press preseason Top 25.
Georgia received 46 first-place votes and 1,532 points in the Top 25 released Monday, earning the top spot for the second straight year. The SEC powerhouse finished comfortably ahead of the Buckeyes (15 first-place votes and 1,490 points) of the Big Ten.
New Big Ten member Oregon is No. 3, receiving one first-place vote from the panel of 62 media members who cover college football. Texas, which joins Georgia in the Southeastern Conference this season, is fourth.
The Big Ten and SEC each have four teams in the top 10.
Conference realignment has reduced the Power Five to the Power Four, with the Pac-12 whittled to just two schools. The Big Ten now has 18 schools. The Atlantic Coast Conference has 17 football teams, and the SEC and Big 12 each have 16.
All the movement created an unprecedented preseason poll with just four conferences represented: The SEC leads with nine ranked teams. The Big Ten has six, the Big 12 has five and the ACC has four.
Alabama, in its first season without coach Nick Saban since 2006, starts No. 5. No. 6 Mississippi gives the SEC half the top preseason top six.
Independent Notre Dame is the highest ranked team from outside the SEC and Big Ten at No. 7.
No. 8 Penn State and No. 9 Michigan give the Big Ten four top-10 teams. Florida State from the ACC is No. 10.
Title game finalists
The defending national champion Wolverines said goodbye to coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and 12 other players who were selected in April’s NFL draft. All that attrition led to Michigan receiving the lowest preseason ranking for a defending national champion since 2011, when Auburn was No. 23 after the departure of Cam Newton.
Before that, the last time a defending national champion was ranked worse than No. 7 in the following preseason poll was Colorado at No. 13 in 1991.
Washington, which lost to Michigan in the College Football Playoff championship game, took an even bigger fall after losing its head coach (Kalen DeBoer replaced Saban at Alabama), star quarterback and a mountain of talent to the draft and transfer portal. The Huskies are the first team to reach the CFP and be unranked the following season.
Ohio State enters the season with high expectations
The Buckeyes continue a streak of making a spot in the top five for the initial poll. For 12 consecutive preseason polls, the team has ranked in the top 10, with 10 of those rankings being in the top five.
The Buckeyes also extended their streak of AP preseason poll appearances to 36 consecutive years, which is longer than any other program in the country.
Ohio State's schedule will feature three games against top-10 ranked opponents, including Oregon, Penn State and Michigan.
As he starts his sixth season, coach Ryan Day insisted the urgency isn't any greater than in any other preseason.
“Every year there's urgency,” Day said. “If you don't think it's important, try losing a game at Ohio State. I say it all the time. Yeah, it's no different that way, but there are a lot of guys on the team who want to finish the season with some hardware, and that matters.”
Newcomers include former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard, who will compete for the starting job with four others; former Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins; and former Alabama safety Caleb Downs. Day brought in his old coach, Chip Kelly, as the offensive coordinator.
Closely watched will be Emeka Egbuka, who slots in as the No. 1 receiver after playing in the shadow of star wideout Marvin Harrison Jr., and running back TreVeyon Henderson. Both are preseason All-Big Ten selections. Freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, the top-rated high school prospect in the nation, has been described as a generational talent.
“There’s a reason why guys came back this year,” he said. “You heard a couple guys on our team talking about the expectations. We’re not going to talk about that anymore. But there’s a reason they came back. We’ll find out what this foundation looks like as we get into the season, get to some of the storms that are coming our way. They’re coming. We’ve got to be ready to go.”
Returning players are determined to change the narrative of the past three seasons in which the Buckeyes stumbled late and came home emptyhanded.
“This has been a big-time summer for us, a hard offseason,” said fourth-year cornerback Denzel Burke, a preseason All-Big Ten selection.
The Buckeyes open at home Aug. 31 against Akron.
AP Top 25:
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Texas
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Notre Dame
- Penn State
- Michigan
- Florida State
- Missouri
- Utah
- LSU
- Clemson
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- Kansas State
- Miami (FL)
- Texas A&M
- Arizona
- Kansas
- USC
- NC State
- Iowa