We know the college football season is getting close not by the beginning of fall camp, but by our ability to now officially debate which teams are overrated (or not getting any love) heading into 2013.
The USA Today released its preseason coaches poll with the defending BCS champion as the clear No.1 team. The Tide received 58 of 62 first-place votes. However, as the publication notes, Alabama has never have won a BCS title when ranked atop the preseason coaches poll.
Ohio State, the team many feel can get back to a BCS championship game -- the final one before College Football Playoff takes over -- comes in at No. 2 in the poll with three first-place votes. Pac-12 North foes Oregon and Stanford come in at No. 3 and No. 4, and Georgia rounds out the preseason top five.
Texas A&M and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel have one first-place vote at the sixth spot, and South Carolina wins the early Battle of the Palmetto State by being ranked seventh in the preseason poll to Clemson’s eighth.
An overwhelming favorite to win the AAC this year, Louisville comes in at No. 9 and Florida, which lost to the Cardinals in last season’s Sugar Bowl, rounds out the top 10.
The SEC starts the 2013 season with six teams in the coaches’ poll, followed by the Big Ten and Pac-12 with five, the Big 12 with four, and the ACC with two.
Without any further delay, here’s the preseason poll with first-place votes in parentheses. Which teams are too high? Too low?
1. Alabama (58)
2. Ohio State (3)
3. Oregon
4. Stanford
5. Georgia
6. Texas A&M (1)
7. South Carolina
8. Clemson
9. Louisville
10. Florida
11. Notre Dame
12. Florida State
13. LSU
14. Oklahoma State
15. Texas
16. Oklahoma
17. Michigan
18. Nebraska
19. Boise State
20. TCU
21. UCLA
22. Northwestern
23. Wisconsin
24. USC
25. Oregon State
