2013 Preseason USA TODAY Sports Top 25 Coaches Poll Released; Alabama No. 1

By Kevin Kelley -

The 2013 Preseason USA TODAY Sports Top 25 Coaches Poll has been released and the Alabama Crimson Tide top the rankings. Alabama received 58 first place votes and 1,545 total points.

Ohio State, who finished the 2012 season undefeated at 12-0 but was ineligible for the Coaches Poll, comes in at number two. The Buckeyes received three first place votes and 1,427 points overall. Oregon follows in third place with no first place votes and 1,397 points.

The SEC has six teams in the Top 25 poll, including five in the Top 10, to lead all conferences. The Big Ten and Pac-12 are tied for second with five teams, followed by the Big 12 with four. Listed below is the full conference breakdown:

  • SEC – 6
  • Big Ten – 5
  • Pac-12 – 5
  • Big 12 – 4
  • ACC – 2
  • American – 1
  • Indep. – 
  • Mtn. West – 1

The complete USA TODAY Sports Coaches Top 25 Football Poll is listed below (first place votes; total points):

1. Alabama (20) 1,545
2. Ohio State (3) 1,427
3. Oregon 1,397
4. Stanford 1,262
5. Georgia 1,250
6. Texas A&M (1) 1,215
7. South Carolina 1,136
8. Clemson 1,047
9. Louisville 1,010
10. Florida 930
11. Notre Dame 872
12. Florida State 844
13. LSU 797
14. Oklahoma State 726
15. Texas 622
16. Oklahoma 620
17. Michigan 589
18. Nebraska 426
19. Boise State 420
20. TCU 400
21. UCLA 202
22. Northwestern 186
23. Wisconsin 172
24. USC 165
25. Oregon State 135

Others Receiving Votes

Kansas State (11-2) 113; Miami (Fla.) 101; Michigan State 89; Baylor 80; Virginia Tech 65; Fresno State 62; Arizona State 51; Mississippi 32; Vanderbilt (9-4) 29; Utah State (11-2) 23; Brigham Young 20; North Carolina 19; Northern Illinois (12-2) 19; Tulsa (11-3) 9; Ohio 8; San Jose State (11-2) 8; Arizona 5; Cincinnati (10-3) 3; East Carolina 3; Kent State 3; Mississippi State 3; Washington 3; Central Florida 2; Arkansas 1; Arkansas State 1; Rutgers 1; Tennessee 1; Toledo 1.

What do you think of the poll? Is your team ranked? Let us know in the comments below.

Comments (28)

ND is not 14th they are 11th on the 2013 Preseason USA Today Sports Top 25 Coaches Poll released on August 01st. Why worry about ND, they will be just fine again this year. Maybe not a Title contender but at least a BSC team playing is one of the big games again. I am not a ND homer either, but give them some respect, they did lose only one game. By the way, Go Navy!!! Yeah!!! Fear the Goat!!! Let’s go bowling once again!!!

Again, the first poll is useless basically based on last year without any real research. Miami is everyone’s big pick this year to have a breakout season. They have a schedule that should allow 10-2 and at worst 9-3. Arizona State gets everything back from a very solid team. I try to ignore the polls until three or four weeks in to the season anyway but it still gives top preseason teams a great advantage because a loss or two and they will still be highly ranked even though they probably do not deserve it.

Miami is always picked to have a break out season…. This isn’t the Miami of the 90s.

After BYU beats Texas and Boise State, they will slide into the 17 slot. Georgia will find a way to struggle and fall to 15. Texas will rebound and take the B12–going as high as 11. TCU will fall flat and drop out of the rankings, as will Nebraska and Oregon State. Other than that, looks rather accurate.

BYU then goes on to defeat Georgia Tech, Wisconsin and Notra Dame rising to number four. After favorable results in the Conference Championship games, they are invited to the National Championship game where they defeat Auburn 45 to 0 thereby providing KBYU with rerun programming for the next 30 years. Gotta love pre season polls.

You guys both sound like you are writing a script for an episode of The Twilight Zone. Earth to Malt & Joe: Sorry, Boise State and TCU are both going to kick butt. Like it.

I can’t see Miami going 10-2. Not to say the ACC is a great football conference, but maybe at best 8-4. Clemson and FSU should be in the Top 25, since they are the only teams in the ACC, that carry that conference.

Preseason polls have their place. It is nice for fans to see how the country perceives them going into the season.

My problem is not with the preseason poll which is based entirely on a prediction of the upcoming season. My problem is with teams having to play their way out of the poll in weeks 2-4. I think that voters should redo their entire poll each week. Any team that is 0-1 should not be in the top 25. If we changed a mentality to play your way in and not play your way out.

So what you are saying is if Team X loses to Alabama and team Y beats Savannah State, then team Y is automatically better….no further evidence needed?????

The poll is a snapshot of a collection of opinions at a given point in the season. No more no less.

Clemson will drop fast after losing to Georgia in week 1. They will then lose to Fla. St. and South Carolina and one other unexpected loss as usual.

No, Clemson will find a way to beat two of the three teams you listed, and just as all of the pundits start jumping on the “this is the year that Clemson gets it all together” bandwagon (like every year), they will inexplicably lose to two of bottom feeders in the ACC like they always do. And everybody will just shake their heads and say, “Typical Clemson”.

I;m not Kevin but last year it was released on Saturday August 18. I imagine it will be released at a similar time this year,

Hopefully Boise State loses to Washington and BYU and 1 or 2 MWC games and their cupcake WAC and MWC scheduling history will show through. Nobody that plays in such a dumpy little stadium with a track spray painted gray is a worthy national title contender. This year with Southern Miss, Tennessee-Martin, Wyoming and New Mexico @ home they will have trouble filling that half built erector set of a stadium that only seats 36,800.

You can also say that about FSU. They lose to someone they are not supposed to lose to also. I still say that Clemson, and FSU carry the ACC. I can see Clemson losing to Georgia and South Carolina, and win the 10 games in between, which would be a win over FSU, only because the game is at Clemson.
Should be an interesting year

How does K-State go from winning B12 to not ranked. I know they lost a good QB but come on. #norespect