With the season upon us, preseason rankings have begun to come out of the woodwork. The latest edition comes via Sports Illustrated and is particularly noteworthy for our purposes as the SEC doesn’t get much love from the poll.

The first sign of disrespect comes at the top as Clemson edged out Alabama for the top overall spot. At least Ohio State took a tumble following the Urban Meyer/Zach Smith saga, otherwise, SI may have jumped the Buckeyes over the Crimson Tide, too.

Several SEC early-season opponents made the rankings as Washington, West Virginia and Miami all rank inside the top 13. For some reason, Mississippi State is ranked all the way down at No. 21 behind Florida State — which had to reschedule a game against ULM for Championship Week just to make a bowl last season, Arizona and Houston (both teams combined to go 14-11 in 2017).

South Carolina continues to not receive respect in these polls for some reason and the same could be said for Texas A&M. The Aggies have more going for them than some of these teams near the bottom of the poll.

Here’s the complete list of preseason rankings released by Sports Illustrated on Tuesday:

  • #1 Clemson

  • #2 Alabama

  • #3 Wisconsin
  • #4 Washington (open the season against Auburn in Atlanta)
  • #5 Oklahoma

  • #6 Georgia

  • #7 Penn State

  • #8 Auburn

  • #9 Ohio State
  • #10 West Virginia (open the season against Tennessee in Charlotte)
  • #11 Michigan State
  • #12 Stanford
  • #13 Miami (open the season against LSU in Arlington)
  • #14 TCU
  • #15 Michigan
  • #16 Notre Dame
  • #17 UCF
  • #18 Florida State
  • #19 Arizona
  • #20 Houston

  • #21 Mississippi State

  • #22 Texas

  • #23 LSU

  • #24 NC State
  • #25 FAU