Alabama Football No. 1 in Preseason Coaches Poll
8/2/2018 1:50:00 PM | Football
Nine Southeastern Conference schools receive votes in first poll of 2018
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – USA Today released its annual Amway Preseason Coaches Poll for college football on Thursday and named Alabama its No. 1 team. The ranking marks the ninth consecutive year the Crimson Tide is amongst the top-three teams in the nation heading into the new season.
Alabama received 61 of a possible 65 first-place votes in the poll. Clemson holds down the No. 2 spot in the preseason rankings while Ohio State, Georgia and Oklahoma check in at spots 3-5, respectively.
The Southeastern Conference placed five teams in the top 25 with three of those squads ranking in the top-10. In all, nine SEC schools received votes in the preseason poll.
The Crimson Tide will face three teams ranked in the preseason top-25 poll, including No. 10 Auburn, No. 18 Mississippi State and No. 25 LSU. Alabama will also meet three teams that received votes in the preseason poll – Texas A&M, Arkansas and season-opening foe Louisville. The Tide and the Cardinals square off at Camping World Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 1, to kick off the 2018 campaign. The matchup is scheduled for a 7 p.m. CT start on ABC.
Alabama returns 12 starters from last season's squad that finished 13-1 and won the school's 17th national championship. The Tide has claimed four of the last six SEC titles and five of the last nine national championships. Across the last 10 seasons under head coach Nick Saban Alabama owns a 125-14 (.899) record.
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaFTBL on Twitter and Facebook and AlabamaFBL on Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
