With the college football season just three weeks away, USA Today released its Preseason Coaches Poll. Alabama begins the season as the No. 1 team in the country, while the Florida Gators came in ranked No 25.
Florida was unranked in the first USA Today Coaches poll in 2015. The Gators weren’t ranked inside the top-25 until their fourth straights win of the season, a 28-27 victory over Tennessee. Florida jumped from 23 to 12 after a decisive win over then No. 5 Ole Miss. Florida was ranked as high as 8th after a win over South Carolina, but fell off at the end of the season, finishing ranked No. 25.
The top 25 (first place votes in parentheses):
1. Alabama (55)
2. Clemson (7)
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida State (1)
5. Ohio State
6. LSU
7. Stanford
8. Michigan
9. Notre Dame
10. Tennessee (1)
11. Michigan State
12. Ole Miss
13. Houston
14. TCU
15. Iowa
16. Georgia
17. Southern Cal
18. Washington
19. Oklahoma State
20. North Carolina
21. Baylor
22. Oregon
23. Louisville
24. UCLA
25. Florida
The Coaches Poll is conducted weekly throughout the season using a panel of 64 head coaches, listed below.
The board for the 2016 season: Chris Ash, Rutgers; Dino Babers, Syracuse; David Bailiff, Rice; David Beaty, Kansas; Bret Bielema, Arkansas; John Bonamego, Central Michigan; Terry Bowden, Akron; Matt Campbell, Iowa State; Ron Caragher, San Jose State; Rod Carey, Northern Illinois; Paul Chryst, Wisconsin; Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan; David Cutcliffe, Duke; DJ Durkin, Maryland; Larry Fedora, North Carolina; Jimbo Fisher, Florida State; James Franklin, Penn State; Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech; Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State; Bryan Harsin, Boise State; Clay Helton, Southern California; Tom Herman, Houston; Doc Holliday, Marshall; Skip Holtz, Louisiana Tech; Joey Jones, South Alabama, Brian Kelly, Notre Dame; Sean Kugler, Texas-El Paso; Mike Leach, Washington State; Lance Leipold, Buffalo; Seth Littrell, North Texas; Rocky Long, San Diego State; Mike MacIntyre, Colorado; Gus Malzahn, Auburn; Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio); Doug Martin, New Mexico State; Derek Mason, Vanderbilt; Urban Meyer, Ohio State; Trent Miles, Georgia State; Philip Montgomery, Tulsa; Scottie Montgomery, East Carolina; Chad Morris, Southern Methodist; Dan Mullen, Mississippi State; Mike Norvell, Memphis; Gary Patterson, TCU; Chris Petersen, Washington; Brian Polian, Nevada; Mark Richt, Miami (Fla.); Mike Riley, Nebraska; Rich Rodriguez, Arizona; Nick Saban, Alabama; Tony Sanchez, UNLV; Scott Satterfield, Appalachian State; Kirby Smart, Georgia; Frank Solich, Ohio; Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee State; Bob Stoops, Oklahoma; Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M; Dabo Swinney, Clemson; Tommy Tuberville, Cincinnati; Ron Turner, Florida International; Matt Wells, Utah State; Kyle Whittingham, Utah; Kevin Wilson, Indiana; Everett Withers, Texas State.