Alabama leads five Southeastern Conference teams in AP Top 25
Chris Lee • 8/16/2021 in Football
Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M, Florida and LSU all make the AP's preseason rankings.
John Metchie photo courtesy of Alabama athletics.
Alabama leads a pack of five Southeastern Conference teams in the Associated Press's preseason Top 25.
The Crimson Tide, the defending national champions, got 47 of the 63 first-place votes.
Georgia, which ranked fifth, picked up three first-place votes.
Texas A&M, Florida (13th), LSU (16th) also made the AP's preseason poll.
Ole Miss received 107 votes, finishing two spots out of the poll while Auburn (32 votes) ranked fifth in the "receiving votes" category.
Georgia will face Clemson, which finished third in the poll, in the opening weekend on Sept. 4, while Alabama faces Miami (14th) the same day.
A&M (fourth), Georgia (seventh) and Florida (13th) finished last season in the AP's final rankings.
Alabama has finished the season as the AP's top-ranked team 12 times, including six times under coach Nick Saban.