NEW YORK — Alabama will start this football season where it ended last season — on top.
Coach Nick Saban has the Crimson Tide rolling the way the legendary Bear Bryant did in his day, ranked first in The Associated Press preseason poll for the first time since 1978.
Alabama received 54 of 60 first-place votes from the media panel and totaled 1,491 points to easily outdistance second-ranked Ohio State in the top 25 announced Saturday.
The Buckeyes, who have been ranked no lower than 11th in the last eight preseason polls, received three first-place votes.
Boise State is third, its best preseason ranking, following another undefeated season. Underdogs no more, the Broncos even received one first-place vote.
Florida, Alabama’s Southeastern Conference rival, is ranked fourth. Fifth-ranked Texas received a first-place vote.
As for Alabama, Bryant was its coach the last time the Crimson Tide was the AP’s preseason No. 1. The Tide started and finished that 1978 season on top of the rankings, the first of two straight national championships for Alabama. The only other time Alabama was a preseason No. 1 team was in 1966, when Bear’s boys were coming off back-to-back national championships.
Saban’s Tide, led by Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, will try to make Alabama the first program to win back-to-back AP titles three times. Oklahoma and Nebraska also have done it twice.
But please don’t call Alabama the defending champion — at least not in front of its coach.
“What was accomplished by last year’s team has nothing to do with this year’s team,” Saban said. “The players have to understand that.”
