The defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide enter the 2021 season in the same positioning in which they finished the 2020 season — No. 1 in the AP Top 25. With the college football season beginning in less than two weeks, Alabama is clearly projected as the top team in the nation once again, receiving 47 of 62 first-place votes in the preseason college football rankings.
It should come as no surprise that national powers Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State and Georgia fill out the rest of the top five given their frequent appearances in the College Football Playoff. Texas A&M and Oregon, two teams with extremely high hopes heading into the season, chime in at the No. 8 and No. 11, respectively.
Here is a look at the entire AP Top 25. First-place votes are in parenthesis.
2021 Preseason AP Top 25
1. Alabama (47)
2. Oklahoma (6)
3. Clemson (6)
4. Ohio State (1)
5. Georgia (3)
6. Texas A&M
7. Iowa State
8. Cincinnati
9. Notre Dame
10. North Carolina
11. Oregon
12. Wisconsin
13. Florida
14. Miami (FL)
15. USC
16. LSU
17. Indiana
18. Iowa
19. Penn State
20. Washington
21. Texas
22. Coastal Carolina
23. Louisiana
24. Utah
25. Arizona State
Others receiving votes: Oklahoma State (107); Ole Miss (106); TCU (40), Liberty (36), Auburn (32), NC State (14), Michigan (12), Northwestern (8), Boise State (7), Nevada (7), BYU (6), Ball State (6), Houston (5), Boston College (5), UCF (5), West Virginia (3), UAB (2), Army (2), UCLA (2)
