Alabama sits No. 8 in first AP Poll, lowest preseason ranking since 2008
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Welcome to the final full week of the year without a college football game.
It’s hard to believe but Week 0 officially kicks off a week from this Saturday with the first full slate of games happening on Aug. 30.
While we wait for things to be settled on the field, the preseason debates are in full swing. The first Associated Press poll of the 2025 season was released Monday without many surprises.
Alabama is ranked No. 8, the same spot it received in last week’s preseason Coaches Poll. Meanwhile Auburn received 10 points, which puts the Tigers in 37th overall in the poll.
Keep reading to see more about the highs + lows for both teams in the voting process and make sure to check out the complete Top 25.
Bama’s lowest preseason ranking since 2008
Alabama takes the No. 8 spot in the preseason AP Poll, its lowest preseason ranking since 2008 when the Tide started the season ranked No. 24.
However, the Tide’s ranking is up 9 spots from where it sat in the final rankings of 2024. Alabama has finished lower than its preseason ranking in each of the last four seasons.
Voters put Alabama just five points clear of No. 9 LSU. The Tide is the second highest-ranked team among those who didn’t receive any first-place votes.
Alabama was ranked as high as No. 2 with Javon Edmonds of the Syracuse Post-Herald putting the Tide just behind Ohio State.
The Crimson Tide received nine top-5 votes from 65 panelists. The team’s lowest ranking came from Kevin Carter of CBS Sports who put Alabama at No. 23.
Auburn receives most votes since 2022
The Tigers remain outside of the AP’s preseason Top 25 for the fifth consecutive season, the first time that’s happened since the 1950s when Auburn was not ranked in the first five editions of the AP preseason poll.
But as echoed by the preseason coaches poll, there is still some hype behind Auburn entering the third year of the Hugh Freeze era.
The Tigers received 10 points in the poll, their most in the preseason rankings since 2022. That came from just three ballots including:
- 21st on Stephen Means of Cleveland.com
- 22nd on Koki Riley of The Advocate
- 25th on Jerry Humphrey of AL.com
Auburn is hoping to return to the Top 25 for the first time since November 2021. The Tigers hit the road to play Baylor which sits just outside the Top 25, in the season opener.
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