Preseason polls! Wooooo! The Tigers were ranked 7th in the Amway Coaches Poll that came out at the end of July and now the second of the old major polls that now mean nothing has been released for the preseason.
In the AP Top 25, the Tigers come in ranked 6th in the preseason. They are the second highest ranked SEC team behind Alabama at #3. Other SEC teams in the Top 25 include UGA at #9, LSU at #14, Ole Miss at #17, Arkansas at #18, Missouri at #24, and Tennessee sneaking in at #25.
This is remarkably similar to the Coaches Poll. The Coaches Poll also left Mississippi State and Texas A&M out of the ranking. I'm shocked that Tennessee is getting the level of love that they are over the MSU Bulldogs after the season they had last season and considering the weapons they return. That's just the way things go, though.
The Poll
Here's a look at the complete poll. It can be found at the AP's official website here.
<table width="100%" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr bgcolor="#EDF1F3">
<th align="center">Ranking</th>
<th align="center">Team</th>
<th align="center">Points</th>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">1</td>
<td align="center">Ohio State (61)</td>
<td align="center">1,525</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">2</td>
<td align="center">TCU</td>
<td align="center">1,428</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">3</td>
<td align="center">Alabama</td>
<td align="center">1,322</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">4</td>
<td align="center">Baylor</td>
<td align="center">1,263</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">5</td>
<td align="center">Michigan State</td>
<td align="center">1,256</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">6</td>
<td align="center">Auburn</td>
<td align="center">1,192</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">7</td>
<td align="center">Oregon</td>
<td align="center">1,156</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">8</td>
<td align="center">USC</td>
<td align="center">1,085</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">9</td>
<td align="center">Georgia</td>
<td align="center">991</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">10</td>
<td align="center">Florida State</td>
<td align="center">959</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">11</td>
<td align="center">Notre Dame</td>
<td align="center">873</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">12</td>
<td align="center">Clemson</td>
<td align="center">862</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">13</td>
<td align="center">UCLA</td>
<td align="center">698</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">14</td>
<td align="center">LSU</td>
<td align="center">675</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">15</td>
<td align="center">Arizona State</td>
<td align="center">605</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">16</td>
<td align="center">Georgia Tech</td>
<td align="center">588</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">17</td>
<td align="center">Mississippi</td>
<td align="center">563</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">18</td>
<td align="center">Arkansas</td>
<td align="center">410</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">19</td>
<td align="center">Oklahoma</td>
<td align="center">394</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">20</td>
<td align="center">Wisconsin</td>
<td align="center">393</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">21</td>
<td align="center">Stanford</td>
<td align="center">347</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">22</td>
<td align="center">Arizona</td>
<td align="center">311</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">23</td>
<td align="center">Boise State</td>
<td align="center">240</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">24</td>
<td align="center">Missouri</td>
<td align="center">219</td>
</tr>
<tr onMouseOver="this.bgColor='#C7D9EC'" onMouseOut="this.bgColor='#FFFFFF'">
<td align="center">25</td>
<td align="center">Tennessee</td>
<td align="center">114</td>
</tr>
</table>
The Schedule:
Auburn will face five teams currently ranked in the Top 25. All of them are SEC teams. Again, the only non-conference team the Tigers play that could end up on an end-of-year Top 25 is Louisville. Of those five teams, Auburn will get three of them at home (Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss), and two of them on the road (LSU, Arkansas).
Expect these rankings to change, of course. I suspected one or two of the SEC teams on this list to fall out and one or two not on the list to find their way in. Preseason polls really don't have the predictive ability they used to as coaches close practices and no one really knows what's going on inside these programs.