7 SEC teams ranked in USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll
A mesmerizing seven SEC teams are ranked in USA Today’s Amway Preseason Coaches Poll including Alabama at No. 2 and defending league champion Auburn rounding out the Top 5.
Ninth-ranked South Carolina is the SEC’s only team to receive a first-place vote. Other ranked SEC members include Georgia (No. 12), LSU (No. 13), Ole Miss (No. 19) and Texas A&M (No. 20).
Last season, Auburn didn’t appear in the preseason coaches poll but captured the Western Division, won the SEC Championship and came up just short in the final BCS National Championship Game, snapping the SEC’s streak of seven consecutive titles.
Preseason Coaches Poll
| 1 | FLORIDA STATE | 14-0 | 1543 | 56 | NR | — | |
| 2 | ALABAMA | 11-2 | 1455 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 3 | OKLAHOMA | 11-2 | 1382 | 3 | NR | — | |
| 4 | OREGON | 11-2 | 1314 | 1 | NR | — | |
| 5 | AUBURN | 12-2 | 1271 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 6 | OHIO STATE | 12-2 | 1267 | 1 | NR | — | |
| 7 | UCLA | 10-3 | 1085 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 8 | MICHIGAN STATE | 13-1 | 1050 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 9 | SOUTH CAROLINA | 11-2 | 1009 | 1 | NR | — | |
| 10 | BAYLOR | 11-2 | 965 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 11 | STANFORD | 11-3 | 955 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 12 | GEORGIA | 8-5 | 905 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 13 | LSU | 10-3 | 833 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 14 | WISCONSIN | 9-4 | 654 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 15 | USC | 10-4 | 627 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 16 | CLEMSON | 11-2 | 535 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 17 | NOTRE DAME | 9-4 | 509 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 18 | ARIZONA STATE | 10-4 | 358 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 19 | OLE MISS | 8-5 | 346 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 20 | TEXAS A&M | 9-4 | 266 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 21 | KANSAS STATE | 8-5 | 257 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 22 | NEBRASKA | 9-4 | 228 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 23 | NORTH CAROLINA | 7-6 | 175 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 24 | TEXAS | 8-5 | 143 | 0 | NR | — | |
| 25 | WASHINGTON | 9-4 | 142 | 0 | NR | — |
Per USA Today, ‘the Amway Coaches Poll is conducted weekly throughout the regular season using a panel of head coaches at FBS schools. The panel is chosen by random draw, conference by conference plus independents, from a pool of coaches who have indicated to the American Football Coaches Association their willingness to participate. Each coach submits a Top 25 with a first-place vote worth 25 points, second place 24, and so on down to one point for 25th.’
RELATED: Media picks preseason All-SEC, order of finish
The first regular-season poll will be released Sept. 2. The final regular-season poll will be released Dec. 7.
The coaches poll will not be part of the determination of the first College Football Playoff, which will use a selection committee to determine its top four teams.
With the start of the 2014 college football season less than four weeks away, ‘talking season’ as Steve Spurrier calls it, is almost over.
