In advance of the NCAA football season kicking off later this month, the 2019 preseason Coaches Poll was released on Thursday and the defending national champion Clemson Tigers find themselves in the same place they ended last season: atop college football.
It’s the first time in the more than 100 years Clemson’s football program has existed the Tigers have been ranked No. 1 heading into the season.
Coming in behind Clemson at No. 2 is last year’s runner-up in the National Championship game, Alabama. That’s no surprise as the two schools have split the past four national championships and are both good bets to make it back to the College Football Playoff and potentially face each other for the fifth straight year.
This is the first time since 2015 the Crimson Tide, who lost 44-16 loss to the Tigers in January, is not No. 1 in the preseason coaches poll.
Georgia (No. 3), Oklahoma (No. 4) and Ohio State (No. 5) round out the top five.
Here’s the poll in its entirety with first-place votes in parenthesis:
1. Clemson (59)
2. Alabama (6)
3. Georgia
4. Oklahoma
5. Ohio State
6. LSU
7. Michigan
8. Florida
9. Notre Dame
10. Texas
11. Texas A&M
12. Washington
13. Oregon
14. Penn State
15. Utah
16. Auburn
T17. Wisconsin
T17. UCF
19. Iowa
20. Michigan State
21. Washington State
22. Syracuse
23. Stanford
24. Iowa State
25. Northwestern
Other schools receiving top-25 votes include Boise State, Army, Kentucky, Virginia Tech, TCU, USC, Duke and NC State.
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