Clemson is the preseason No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25, a poll featuring nine Big Ten and Pac-12 teams that gives a glimpse at what has already been taken by the coronavirus pandemic from an uncertain college football season.
Ohio State (1,504 points) was a close No. 2 behind quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Clemson (1,520), which starts atop the rankings for the second straight season. Clemson's Tigers beat the Buckeyes in a thrilling College Football Playoff semifinal last season.
Alabama is No. 3, Southeastern Conference rival Georgia is No. 4 and 2019 Big 12 champion Oklahoma is No. 5. Reigning national champion LSU is No. 6.
The 85th edition of the AP rankings will be like none before.
When the season starts - if the season starts - the Buckeyes and 53 other Football Bowl Subdivision teams will no longer be eligible for inclusion in the Top 25 because they have postponed their seasons to the spring.
The Big Ten, where Ohio State and No. 7 Penn State play, and the Pac-12, home to No. 9 Oregon, canceled their fall sports seasons because of concerns about the coronavirus. The Mid-American and Mountain West conferences have also said they will try to play spring football.
The SEC, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, American Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Sun Belt Conference are forging ahead with fall sports, with changes: The three remaining Power Five conferences - the ACC, Big 12 and SEC - have eliminated all or most nonconference games and delayed the start of their seasons from one to three weeks.
Erased from the college football schedule this year were a host of tantalizing nonconference matchups: Ohio State at No. 9 Oregon; No. 10 Notre Dame versus No. 12 Wisconsin at Lambeau field in Green Bay; No. 14 Texas at LSU; No. 17 Southern California versus Alabama in Arlington, Texas; No. 11 Auburn versus No. 18 North Carolina in Atlanta.
For now, big conference games such as Ohio State-Michigan and Washington-Washington State could still be made up in the spring.
All Division I teams were eligible for the preseason AP Top 25, but after the season starts, only teams scheduled to play in the fall are eligible. That leaves 76 FBS teams from which to choose.
If a spring season is played, the AP will consider doing rankings for those teams, too.
BACK-TO-BACK ON TOP
Clemson had never been a preseason No. 1 until last season, and now it starts there again. It's the eighth time since the preseason poll started in 1950 that a team has been preseason No. 1 two straight years. Alabama had been preseason No. 1 from 2016 to 2018, a three-year run.
The Tigers finished last season No. 2 after losing the championship game to LSU, snapping a remarkable run of nine seasons in which Clemson has finished with the same or better ranking than it started. That included the past five seasons, in which Clemson outperformed its preseason ranking, twice finishing No. 1 after starting No. 2.
The ACC's Tigers, who also welcome back star running back Travis Etienne, standout offensive tackle Jackson Carman and sturdy defensive tackle Tyler Davis, will try to become the 12th preseason No. 1 to finish No. 1. Only two teams have gone wire to wire as No. 1 in the AP poll: Florida State in 1999 and Southern California in 2004.
REIGNING CHAMPS
LSU is the first reigning national champion to start the following season outside the top five since Auburn in 2011 (post-Cam Newton, the Tigers were ranked No. 23 in the preseason poll). LSU lost a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and No. 1 overall NFL draft pick, too, in Joe Burrow.
Myles Brennan is the new quarterback for the Tigers, who had 14 players selected in the NFL draft this past spring, including five in the first round. There is plenty of talent coming back with All-America receiver Ja'Marr Chase, cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and nose tackle Tyler Shelvin.
The Tigers will try to become the first back-to-back national champions since Alabama in 2011-12.