Alabama Overwhelming No. 1 in Coaches’ Preseason Poll

in Human Polls Rankings by Asher Feldman — August 6, 2010 at 8:49 am | 1 comment

Let the debate begin.

The first of the major media preseason polls was released this morning, and not surprisingly, the defending national champions are at the top by a convincing margin.

Alabama, who won the BCS National Championship Game in January and topped every postseason ranking, starts the 2010 season just where they left off, at No. 1 in the USA Today Coaches Poll — looking down at the rest of the 119 FBS schools.

The Crimson Tide’s immediate company should also be pretty familiar to the boys from Tuscaloosa, as all of the preseason top five in the Coaches ended the 2009 season among the top five, although in a different order.

Ohio State enters the season with big hopes, and sees that reflected in the Coaches’ Poll, coming in at No. 2.

Usual suspects Florida (No. 3) and Texas (No. 4) are right near the top once again, followed by No. 5 Boise State. The Broncos have never received such high preseason praise, and have some people thinking a national championship run could be in the works.

ACC favorite Virginia Tech and another BCS-buster TCU come in at No. 6 and No. 7 respectively — separated by a mere point.

Two Big 12 teams — Oklahoma and Nebraska — take the next two spots, forecasting another strong year out of the Big 12 in its final year of existence.

The Iowa Hawkeyes round out the top ten, as part of four Big Ten schools in the top-14 of the rankings (No. 12 Wisconsin and No. 14 Penn State)

Other items of note:

• The Pac-10 does not have a team ranked in the Top 10 in the preseason poll for the first time in years. As a reminder, USC will not be ranked by the Coaches’ Poll in 2010 because of NCAA sanctions against the school.
• The SEC contributes six of the polls first top-25 teams.
• Pittsburgh (No. 15) is your highest ranked Big East team.
• Utah (t-No. 24) is your only other non-BCS school in the preseason top-25. Houston comes in at No. 27.

The coaches poll is one-third of the BCS formula, along with the Harris Interactive poll and the computer polls.

USA Today Coaches’ 2010 Preseason Poll

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