College football rankings 2019: Clemson edges Alabama in composite preseason top 25 poll

Bill Bender

College football rankings 2019: Clemson edges Alabama in composite preseason top 25 poll image

Preseason polls for the 2019 college football season are being released as camps open this weekend. 

Spoiler alert: Either Clemson or Alabama will be No. 1 in all of them. 

MORE: 19 predictions for 2019 season

Sporting News released its Preseason Top 25 this week, too, but we like looking around other polls to see what a consensus might look like. We factored in Athlon, the AMWAY Coaches Poll, Sports Illustrated, ESPN.comCBSSports.com and the AP Top 25

The result? Clemson has one more vote than Alabama across those sites. 

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 

NO RANK TOTAL
1 Clemson 172
2 Alabama 171
3 Georgia 161
4 Oklahoma 151
5 Ohio State 147
6 LSU 135
7 Michigan 130
T-8 Texas 122
T-8 Florida 122
10 Notre Dame 121
11 Texas A&M 99
12 Oregon 98
13 Washington 94
14 Utah 83
15 Penn State 76
16 Auburn 68
17 UCF 52.5
18 Wisconsin 46.5
19 Iowa 37
20 Michigan State 35
21 Syracuse 32
22 Iowa State 29
23 Nebraska 23
24 Stanford 15
T-25 Mississippi State 13
T-25 Army 13

Others receiving votes: Washington State 8, Virginia 6, Virginia Tech 4, Missouri 4, Miami 3, Northwestern 1, Oklahoma State 1 

Comparing top 25 college football rankings 

RANK SN COACHES ATHLON CBS SI ESPN AP TOTAL
Clemson 24 25 24 25 24 25 25 172
Alabama 25 24 25 24 25 24 24 171
Georgia 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 161
Oklahoma 21 22 20 22 22 22 22 151
Ohio State 22 21 21 21 20 21 21 147
LSU 19 20 19 20 18 19 20 135
Michigan 16 19 22 19 15 20 19 130
Texas 20 16 15 18 21 16 16 122
Florida 18 18 18 17 16 17 18 122
Notre Dame 17 17 17 16 19 18 17 121
Texas A&M 15 15 16 12 13 14 14 99
Oregon 13 13 11 14 17 15 15 98
Washington 12 14 14 15 14 12 13 94
Utah 9 11 13 13 12 13 12 83
Penn State 14 12 12 7 9 11 11 76
Auburn 11 10 6 11 10 10 10 68
UCF 2 8.5 4 9 11 9 9 52.5
Wisconsin 5 8.5 7 8 7 4 7 46.5
Iowa -- 7 8 -- 8 8 6 37
Michigan State -- 6 10 4 5 2 8 35
Syracuse 8 4 5 6 -- 5 4 32
Iowa State 6 2 2 10 3 1 5 29
Nebraska 1 -- 9 2 2 7 2 23
Stanford 4 3 -- -- 1 6 1 15
Mississippi State 7 -- -- -- 6 -- -- 13
Army 10 -- -- -- -- 3 -- 13
Washington State 3 5 -- -- -- -- 3 11
Virginia -- -- 1 5 -- -- -- 6
Virginia Tech -- -- -- -- 4 -- -- 4
Missouri -- -- 3 -- -- -- -- 3
Miami -- -- -- 3 -- -- -- 3
Northwestern -- 1   -- -- -- -- 1
Oklahoma State -- -- -- 1 -- -- -- 1

Bill Bender

Bill Bender Photo

Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.