TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama football team was selected as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press’ preseason poll Monday for the third-consecutive season.
Clemson claimed the No. 2 spot, while Georgia begins the season at No. 3. Wisconsin and Ohio State round out the top five.
The Southeastern Conference placed five teams in the top 25, including three in the top 10. Auburn is No. 9.
In addition to the SEC’s top-10 teams, Mississippi State checked in at No. 18, which is its highest preseason ranking since it was No. 14 entering the 1981 season.
Alabama joins Oklahoma (1985-87) as the second team to start the season No. 1 three years in a row.
This is also the ninth consecutive year Alabama is rated among the top three teams in the nation by The AP entering a season, the longest stretch in school history.
Alabama is making its sixth appearance at No. 1 in the AP’s preseason poll. Alabama also began the season No. 1 in the writers’ rankings in 1966, 1978, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2017. The No. 1 ranking is the 104th time the Crimson Tide have topped the AP poll since its inception in 1936, which is No. 2 all-time in poll history, one behind Ohio State’s 105 appearances.
Alabama returns 12 starters from last season’s squad that finished 13-1 and won the school’s 17th national championship. It has claimed four of the last six SEC titles and five of the last nine national championships.
For MSU, this is the first time it will open the year in the top 20 of both major polls since 2011, when it was ranked No. 20 by The AP and by the coaches.
MSU was ranked No. 18 in the preseason Amway Coaches Top 25.
MSU, which was No. 19 in The AP’s final poll and No. 20 in the Coaches’ last poll, returns 18 starters from that team.
First-year MSU head coach Joe Moorhead and his squad will practice Tuesday before their third and final scrimmage Wednesday at Davis Wade Stadium.
MSU will kick off the season at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, against Stephen F. Austin (ESPNU) at Davis Wade Stadium.
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