College Football season is finally upon us as the Associated Press have finally released their 2019 pre-season top-25 ranking.
No one will be surprised to hear that the defending champion Clemson Tigers are the top-ranked team in the nation with the Alabama Crimson Tide right behind them. Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio State round out the rest of the top five. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the only playoff team from 2018 not be ranked in the pre-season top four.
The Big-Ten reigns supreme with seven teams in the top-25. The SEC has six ranked teams, however all of them are ranked in the top-16 (four of which are top ten teams). The Pac-12 looks to be much better in 2019 and they will start off with five ranked programs. The Big-12 will boast three ranked teams while non-power five schools only have two ranked programs (UCF and Notre Dame). Syracuse is the only non-ACC team to make the AP Poll.
A very interesting addition to the pre-season top-25 is No. 24 Nebraska. The Cornhuskers went 4-8 with an abysmal roster in 2018, but many are expecting great things from the program in year 2 under Scott Frost. A better Nebraska team would certainly make an already wide open Big-Ten West race even more interesting.
The Associated Press is very much favoring each conference’s reigning champion, but they’re also acknowledging LSU, Oregon, and Michigan as legitimate threats to overthrow their respective conference.
Full list:
1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. Georgia
4. Oklahoma
5. Ohio State
6. LSU
7. Michigan
8. Florida
9. Notre Dame
10. Texas
11. Oregon
12. Texas A&M
13. Washington
14. Utah
15. Penn State
16. Auburn
17. UCF
18. Michigan State
19. Wisconsin
20. Iowa
21. Iowa State
22. Syracuse
23. Washington State
24. Nebraska
25. Stanford
