Coach Urban Meyer leads the OSU football team onto the field at AT&T Stadium before the College Football Playoff National Championship game against Oregon in Arlington, Texas. OSU won, 42-20.
Credit: Lantern file photo
With the start of the 2015 college football season less than two weeks away, the Ohio State Buckeyes are clearly the top team in the country — at least in the eyes of the Associated Press.
The AP published its preseason Top 25 poll on Sunday afternoon with OSU unanimously standing on top with each of the 61 first-place votes.
The unanimous standing in the preseason poll is the first occurrence in the history of the poll.
OSU, the defending national champion, returns all but seven starters from last season’s squad, including a pair of 2014 AP All-Americans in junior defensive end Joey Bosa and redshirt sophomore quarterback J.T. Barrett.
Following the Buckeyes at No. 2 is TCU, with Alabama, Baylor and Big Ten counterpart Michigan State rounding out the top five.
The SEC led all conferences in number of teams appearing in the poll with eight.
Just three Big Ten teams made the Top 25, with Wisconsin coming in behind OSU and Michigan State at No. 20.
Last season, the Buckeyes opened the season at No. 5 in the AP Top 25. They fell to No. 22 after losing at home to Virginia Tech in their second game but won their next 11 games to secure a spot in the College Football Playoff, which they then won by defeating Alabama and Oregon.
The No. 1 Buckeyes will look to live up to their preseason ranking and begin their title defense when they travel to Blacksburg, Virginia, to face the Virginia Tech Hokies on Sept. 7. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.
AP Top 25:
- Ohio State (61)
- TCU
- Alabama
- Baylor
- Michigan State
- Auburn
- Oregon
- USC
- Georgia
- Florida State
- Notre Dame
- Clemson
- UCLA
- LSU
- Arizona State
- Georgia Tech
- Mississippi
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- Wisconsin
- Stanford
- Arizona
- Boise State
- Missouri
- Tennessee
