The Pre-Season AP college football ranking was released on Monday afternoon, and Clemson will begin the season in the #14 spot. The Tigers garnered 689 points in the voting that saw them ranked as high as ninth by two voters and as low as 22nd.
Pete Yanity of WSPA TV in Spartanburg is South Carolina’s lone AP voter, and he marked the Tigers 20th on his pre-season ballot. Among some of the national voters, Rece Davis voted the Tigers 11th and Adam Zucker and Brett McMurphy voted them 13th
The #14 ranking to start out the season is the lowest projection for the Tigers since they were ranked 16th going into the 2014 season. They finished that season ranked 15th. Each of the last three seasons the Tigers were ranked in the top ten of the pre-season poll only to finish 20th, 13th and 14th respectively.
Georgia will start the season #1 with 46 first place votes. Ohio State is ranked second with 15 votes and Oregon is third with one first place vote. Texas and Alabama round out the top ten.
AP Pre-Season Top 25 Poll
- Georgia (46)
- Ohio State (15)
- Oregon (1)
- Texas
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Notre Dame
- Penn State
- Michigan
- Florida State
- Missouri
- Utah
- LSU
- Clemson
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- Kansas State
- Miami (FL)
- Texas A&M
- Arizona
- Kansas
- USC
- NC State
- Iowa
Others receiving votes: Louisville (111); Virginia Tech (77); Boise State (47); SMU (33); Iowa State (33); Liberty (32); Washington (23); West Virginia (17); Memphis (16); Nebraska (16); Wisconsin (15); UTSA (6); Tulane (5); Appalachian State (4); Kentucky (3); Auburn (2); Colorado (1)