Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The Tigers will face five teams in the preseason AP Poll.
The 2020 preseason AP Poll was released on Monday and Auburn finds itself near the top.
The Tigers debut at No. 11 in the poll with Clemson taking the No. 1 spot, Ohio State (who is not playing) following and then Alabama. Auburn will face five teams in the top 25 including the Crimson Tide, Georgia (No. 4), LSU (No. 6), Texas A&M (No. 13) and Tennessee (No. 25.)
MORE: Auburn Football: 2020 Projected Starting Lineup
247Sports has predicted the AP Poll now that the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled their seasons.
So long, Oregon and USC. Auf wiedersehen, Ohio State and Michigan.
Yes, those teams will not have a spot in the preseason AP Poll when it is released as the Pac-12 and Big Ten have opted to cancel their seasons and try to play in the spring. That means a lot of teams that wouldn’t usually be ranked prior to the 2020 college football season are going to find themselves in the top 25.
For Auburn, it wasn’t whether the Tigers would be ranked but where. In 247Sports prediction for the preseason AP Poll, Gus Malzahn’s team comes in at No. 10.
The word: Here’s a team with major upside this fall considering the Tigers aren’t in that elite SEC group entering camp. Part of the reason is due to the departures on defense and overall uncertainty as Chad Morris arrives as Auburn’s offensive coordinator. Rising sophomore Bo Nix is a playmaker at quarterback and ability to execute will determine how far this team can climb in college football’s toughest division.
Auburn will face six teams in the predicted top 25 including four (No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 LSU and No. 9 Texas A&M) that are also in the top ten. Tennessee, one of Auburn’s new opponents when the SEC went to a conference-only schedule, checks in at No. 17 while Kentucky is at No. 20.
What will the 2020 preseason AP college football rankings look like without Big Ten and Pac-12 teams. What will the poll be in late August?
What will the 2020 preseason AP college football rankings look like without Big Ten and Pac-12 teams. What will the poll be in late August?
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
All of a sudden, the entire college football season changed, with means the entire world of rankings flips.
The Amway preseason Coaches Poll already came out, but the preseason AP ranking voters have time to adapt and adjust to our new 2020 college football normal. That means no Big Ten, Pac-12, Mountain West or MAC teams get ranked.
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This is just a prediction and not the real preseason AP top 25 poll.
The final 2019 AP rankings are in parentheses. Click each team for the CFN 2020 preview.
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What will the 2020 preseason AP college football rankings look like? It’s our predicted best guess. What will the poll be in August?
What will the 2020 preseason AP college football rankings look like? It’s our predicted best guess. What will the poll be – maybe – in August?
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
The AP college football poll is still a really big deal, even in the era of the College Football Playoff.
The AP poll still matters.
This year, it’s crazier than ever to figure it all out with no spring football or anything normal to go off of. Even so, as long as the season is still not canceled by the time it’s August, the AP preseason top 25 poll will come out.
Where did the AP have LSU before last season started? Sixth – as did the Coaches Poll.
CFN in 60: The AP Preseason Top 5 Will Be …
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Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU, Michigan, Florida, Notre Dame, Texas – both major preseason polls had the exact same top ten.
Where did the AP get it wrong? Michigan State at 18 was a miss, Syracuse at 22, Washington State at 23, Nebraska at 24 and Stanford at 25 were all off – but they weren’t crazy calls.
– CFN Preview 2020: All 130 Team Previews
To generalize – in this year more than any other – the preseason voters will likely go off of 1) where things were at the end of last year, 2) who has the star veteran quarterbacks in place, and 3) who has the most returning starters.
This is just a prediction and not the real preseason AP top 25 poll, so don’t get mad or too happy – we’re making the best educational guess possible on a projection.
The final 2019 AP rankings are in parentheses. Click each team for the CFN 2020 preview.
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