AP Preseason Poll 2012: First AP Rankings of Season Released

The Associated Press has released its initial rankings of the 2012 college football season. 

The USC Trojans got the nod as the No. 1 team in the nation with 25 first-place votes, closely followed by Alabama, who garnered 17 first-place votes. LSU (16 first-place votes), Oklahoma (one first-place vote) and Oregon round out the Top Five.

The poll comes out just a few weeks after the USA Today Coaches Poll, and the media seems to agree with the coaches for the most part. Among the notable exceptions are USC and LSU trading places in the two polls. LSU was voted No. 3 in the wake of star defensive back Tyrann Mathieu's dismissal from the team.

Michigan was the lowest-ranked team to receive a first-place vote and is the only representative of the Big Ten conference in the Top 10.

Notable teams that missed out on the Top 25 include Notre Dame.

2012 AP Preseason Poll

RANK	TEAM	2011 RECORD	POINTS
1	Southern Cal (25)	10-2	1,445
2	Alabama (17)	12-1	1,411
3	LSU (16)	13-1	1,402
4	Oklahoma (1)	10-3	1,286
5	Oregon	12-2	1,274
6	Georgia	10-4	1,107
7	Florida St.	9-4	1,093
8	Michigan (1)	11-2	1,000
9	South Carolina	11-2	994
10	Arkansas	11-2	963
11	West Virginia	10-3	856
12	Wisconsin	11-3	838
13	Michigan St.	11-3	742
14	Clemson	10-4	615
15	Texas	8-5	569
16	Virginia Tech	11-3	548
17	Nebraska	9-4	485
18	Ohio St.	6-7	474
19	Oklahoma St.	12-1	430
20	TCU	11-2	397
21	Stanford	11-2	383
22	Kansas St.	10-3	300
23	Florida	7-6	214
24	Boise St.	12-1	212
25	Louisville	7-6	105

Click here to see the recently released AP preseason poll.