College football rankings 2018: Alabama, Clemson top composite preseason Top 25 polls

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Preseason college football rankings for the 2018 season are out with the season just days away. 

MORE: 18 predictions for 2018

So who's the preseason No. 1? Sporting News released its preseason top 25, but we wanted to get a sense of what other publications are thinking. We checked out CBS Sports, the USA Today Amway Coaches PollESPN and Sports Illustrated. The AP preseason poll, released on Monday, tops our list. 

Those five polls to get a feel for what a true Top 25 might look like. Here’s how that shook out (25 points given for a No. 1 ranking, down to one point for a No. 25 ranking). Ties are broken by the team ranked highest in the SN Preseason Top 25. 

Composite top 25 college football rankings

RANK TEAM TOTAL
1 Alabama 149
2 Clemson 145
3 Georgia 134
4 Ohio State 127
5 Wisconsin 125
6 Washington 122
7 Oklahoma 120
8 Penn State 104
9 Auburn 102
10 Miami 96
11 Michigan State 86
12 Notre Dame 85
13 Michigan 76
14 Stanford 76
15 TCU 55
16 West Virginia 53
17 USC 52
18 Florida State 43
19 Mississippi State 43
20 UCF 31
21 Texas 28
22 Virginia Tech 28
23 Boise State 22
24 LSU 13
25 South Carolina 9

Others receiving votes: Arizona 7, Oregon 7, Houston 6, N.C. State 2, Florida 1, Oklahoma State 1, FAU 1 

Comparing Top 25 rankings 

TEAM SN CBS COACHES ESPN SI AP
Alabama 1 1 1 1 2 1
Clemson 2 2 2 2 1 2
Georgia 3 3 3 4 6 3
Ohio State 4 4 4 3 9 5
Oklahoma 5 7 5 7 5 7
Wisconsin 6 5 7 6 3 4
Washington 7 6 6 5 4 6
Auburn 8 9 10 10 8 9
Notre Dame 9 12 11 11 16 12
Penn State 10 8 9 8 7 10
Miami 11 11 8 9 13 8
Michigan 12 13 14 12 15 14
Michigan State 13 10 12 13 11 11
Stanford 14 14 13 14 12 13
USC 15 17 15 16 NR 15
West Virginia 16 20 20 20 10 17
UCF 17 23 23 24 17 21
LSU 18 NR 24 NR 23 25
TCU 19 15 16 21 14 16
Florida State 20 18 19 18 18 19
Texas 21 19 21 22 22 23
South Carolina 22 22 NR 25 NR NR
Mississippi State 23 16 18 17 21 18
Virginia Tech 24 NR 17 15 NR 20
Boise State 25 21 22 19 NR 22
Oregon NR 24 NR 23 NR 24
Florida NR 25 NR NR NR NR
Oklahoma State NR NR 25 NR NR NR
Arizona NR NR NR NR 19 NR
Houston NR NR NR NR 20 NR
N.C. State NR NR NR NR 24 NR
FAU NR NR NR NR 25 NR
Author(s)
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Bill Bender is a national college football writer for The Sporting News.