Like the coaches a week ago, media members voting in the Associated Press college football Top 25 made Alabama an overwhelming preseason choice as the nation's No. 1 team.
Alabama tops AP preseason college football poll; Gophers get 31 votes
The Crimson Tide received 54 of 63 first-place votes. Ohio State is No. 2, followed by Georgia. The Gophers were 32nd in the voting of media members.
August 15, 2022 at 5:02PM
The Crimson Tide received 54 first-place votes and 1,566 points in the balloting of 63 media members. Second-ranked Ohio State had six first-place votes and 1,506 points, while defending national champion Georgia was No. 3 with the other three first-place votes and 1,455 points. Clemson and Notre Dame rounded out the top five, followed by Texas A&M, Utah, Michigan, Oklahoma and Baylor.
Along with Ohio State and Michigan in the top 10, the Big Ten had two other teams in the top 25: No. 15 Michigan State and No. 18 Wisconsin. Five other Big Ten teams received votes: Iowa was 28th with 163 points, Penn State 29th with 160, the Gophers 32nd with 31, Purdue 34th with 17 and Nebraska 47th with one. In the coaches poll last week, the Gophers were 43rd with six votes.
The SEC had the most teams in the Top 25 with six, followed by the ACC (five), Big Ten (four), Pac-12 and Big 12 (three each) and American Athletic (two).
A constant on a team beset by change, Dawson Garcia scored 30 points, going six shots into the season before he even missed.
