The Associated Press released its college football preseason poll Monday, and Penn State will start off this season similar to how it ended 2017.
The Nittany Lions were ranked No. 10 in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll, which was made public at noon, after ending last season at No. 8. James Franklin’s program was also ranked No. 9 in the Amway Coaches Preseason Poll, which was released earlier this month.
Although the AP Poll is not factored into the College Football Playoff rankings, its end-of-year rankings are not typically far off from the playoff committee’s list. Both rankings last season had the same top-9 teams after the regular season, and the CFP committee will once again start publicly releasing theirs Oct. 30.
The preseason AP Poll has historically been a decent indicator of future playoff success. In the last four years, 10 of the 16 playoff teams were ranked in the top 5 of the preseason AP Poll. Only one was ranked worse than No. 15 and none worse than No. 19.
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Penn State opens the season at home against Appalachian State at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 1. Before the College Football Playoff rankings are released, the Nittany Lions will have to face Ohio State (Sept. 29), Michigan State (Oct. 13) and Iowa (Oct. 27).
The complete rankings are listed below:
1. Alabama (42 first-place votes)
2. Clemson (18)
3. Georgia
4. Wisconsin (1)
5. Ohio State
6. Washington
7. Oklahoma
8. Miami (Fla.)
9. Auburn
10. Penn State
11. Michigan State
12. Notre Dame
13. Stanford
14. Michigan
15. USC
16. TCU
17. West Virginia
18. Mississippi State
19. Florida State
20. Virginia Tech
21. UCF
22. Boise State
23. Texas
24. Oregon
25. LSU
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