Alabama, Georgia among six SEC teams in AP preseason poll

Alabama will start its season at the top of a two major preseason polls. After topping the Amway Coaches poll earlier this month, Alabama was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll unveiled Sunday.

The Crimson Tide received 33 of the 61 first-place votes and are followed in the poll by Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida State and LSU. Clemson earned 16 first-place votes, while Florida State earned five, Oklahoma earned four and LSU, Ohio State and Michigan picked up a single vote.

This is the fifth time Alabama has started the season on top of the AP preseason poll and third time under head coach Nick Saban. It is the eighth straight year the Tide have made the top five.

This year marks the first time since 1992 that the teams which ended the previous season ranked No. 1 and No. 2 begin the following season at the same spots. Miami and Washington were the previous teams.

The SEC led all conferences with six teams in the top 25, followed by the Pac 12 with five. Other SEC schools in the list include, No. 9 Tennessee, No. 11 Ole Miss, No. 18 Georgia, and No. 25 Florida.

Alabama has four top 25 opponents on its schedule this season, including No. 20 Southern California which the Tide will face in its opener on Sept. 3.

The poll is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the teams teams. A team receives 25 points for each first place vote, 24 for second place and so on through to the 25th team, which receives one point.

CONFERENCE CALL

Teams in the Top 25 by conference:

SEC — 6

Pac-12 — 5

Big Ten — 4

ACC — 4

Big 12 — 4

AAC — 1

Independent — 1

Source: Associated Press

This story was originally published August 21, 2016 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Alabama, Georgia among six SEC teams in AP preseason poll."