With just 19 days to go until Ohio State’s season opener against Notre Dame on Sept. 3, the Buckeyes have checked in at No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll.
Ohio State trails only Alabama, who took 54 of 63 first-place votes. The Buckeyes had six first-place votes, Georgia – the defending national champions which landed at No. 3 – had three first-place votes.
Rounding out the top five is No. 4 Clemson and No. 5 Notre Dame, which means the Buckeyes’ season opener will be a top-five matchup in Ohio Stadium. The remaining top 10 includes No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 7 Utah, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 Baylor.
Other Big Ten teams included in the poll are No. 15 Michigan State and No. 18 Wisconsin, with Iowa, Penn State, Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska all receiving votes. The SEC led all conferences with six teams landing on the preseason poll, followed by the ACC (five), Big Ten (four) and Big 12 and Pac-12 (three each).
Teams on last season’s final poll that were not in this poll include Louisiana, Iowa, Utah State and San Diego State, while teams new to this poll include No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 14 USC, No. 16 Miami (Fla.) and No. 18 Wisconsin. The largest drop of a team still in the poll belongs to Cincinnati, who fell 19 spots, and the largest rise was by Oregon, who jumped from No. 22 to No. 11 in the preseason poll.
The top five vote getters outside of the top 25 include Tennessee (180), Texas (164), Iowa (163), Penn State (160) and LSU (55).
The full poll can be found below:
| Ranking | Team | Pts. (First-Place Votes) | Previous Ranking |
| No. 1 | Alabama | 1,566 (54) | No. 2 (+1) |
| No. 2 | Ohio State | 1,506 (6) | No. 6 (+4) |
| No. 3 | Georgia | 1,455 (3) | No. 1 (-2) |
| No. 4 | Clemson | 1,292 | No. 14 (+10) |
| No. 5 | Notre Dame | 1,242 | No. 8 (+3) |
| No. 6 | Texas A&M | 1,212 | NR |
| No. 7 | Utah | 1,209 | No. 12 (+5) |
| No. 8 | Michigan | 1,203 | No. 3 (-5) |
| No. 9 | Oklahoma | 956 | No. 10 (+1) |
| No. 10 | Baylor | 884 | No. 5 (-5) |
| No. 11 | Oregon | 832 | No. 22 (+11) |
| No. 12 | Oklahoma State | 814 | No. 7 (-5) |
| No. 13 | NC State | 752 | No. 20 (+3) |
| No. 14 | USC | 711 | NR |
| No. 15 | Michigan State | 631 | No. 9 (-6) |
| No. 16 | Miami (Fla.) | 476 | NR |
| No. 17 | Pittsburgh | 383 | No. 13 (-4) |
| No. 18 | Wisconsin | 365 | NR |
| No. 19 | Arkansas | 348 | No. 21 (+2) |
| No. 20 | Kentucky | 332 | No. 18 (-2) |
| No. 21 | Ole Miss | 324 | No. 11 (-10) |
| No. 22 | Wake Forest | 303 | No. 15 (-7) |
| No. 23 | Cincinnati | 265 | No. 4 (-19) |
| No. 24 | Houston | 263 | No. 17 (-7) |
| No. 25 | BYU | 234 | No. 19 (-6) |
