Gator Country debuts preseason Top 25

With kickoff for the 2011 college football season right around the corner, Gator Country has decided to kick off its weekly college football poll.

We’ve gathered a handful of our esteemed Gator Country members and asked them to pick their own Top 25, so we can put together our very own Top 25 poll!

We begin the season with 33 pollsters taking part, and today we debut our preseason Top 25!

There were few surprises at the top in the Gator Country Top 25, as our pollsters overwhelmingly voted Oklahoma as the top team in the nation with 23 first-place votes.

The top four in the Gator Country poll were the same as both the AP and the Coaches polls, with Oklahoma, Alabama, Oregon and LSU taking the top four spots. Alabama, Oregon and LSU each received three first-place votes.

Behind the consensus top four teams in the nation, there was a little bit of a shakeup at the fifth spot.

Not surprisingly, our beloved blue and orange experts voted No. 5/6 Florida State all the way down to No. 11 in the Gator Country Top 25. Take that ‘Noles!

One of our voters even voted Florida No. 1. Brave guy. The Gators checked in at No. 16 in the Gator Country Top 25, a good six and seven spots ahead of Florida’s AP and Coaches poll rank.

Florida was far from the only team checking into the Top 25 from the Southeastern Conference. Three SEC teams were voted into the Top 10: Alabama (2), LSU (4) and South Carolina (9). Arkansas (13), Florida (16), Georgia (18), Mississippi State (20) and Auburn (22) rounded out the poll for the league.

No other conference had more than five selections, with both the Big Ten and the Big 12 earning five selections.

Below is the complete Gator Country Preseason Top 25.

GatorCountry.com Preseason Top 25
Rank Team Points Previous
1 Oklahoma (23) 813 N/A
2 Alabama (3) 759 N/A
3 Oregon (3) 742 N/A
4 LSU (3) 724 N/A
5 Stanford 606 N/A
6 Boise State 575 N/A
7 Wisconsin 555 N/A
8 Nebraska 539 N/A
9 South Carolina 504 N/A
10 Oklahoma State 493 N/A
11 Florida State 442 N/A
12 Texas A&M 436 N/A
13 Arkansas 410 N/A
14 TCU 401 N/A
15 Virginia Tech 361 N/A
16 Florida (1) 305 N/A
17 Michigan State 280 N/A
18 Georgia 196 N/A
19 Notre Dame 194 N/A
20 Mississippi State 172 N/A
21 Ohio State 170 N/A
22 Auburn 128 N/A
23 Texas 125 N/A
24 Penn State 117 N/A
25 Missouri 112 N/A
Receiving votes: Oregon State 79, USC 69, West Virginia 65, Iowa 56, Arizona State 50, Michigan 33, Miami 31, Pittsburgh 25, Georgia Tech 19, North Carolina 14, Texas Tech 13, Utah 12, Tennessee 9, UCF 6, Arizona 5, Illinois 4, Clemson 3, ECU 3, Navy 2, FIU 1, Louisville 1