The preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll for the 2018 college football season was unveiled on Monday, and Louisville received zero votes. It’s the first time since 2015 that the Cardinals haven’t received a single vote from the AP. U of L got three votes in the preseason coaches poll, which came out earlier this month.
Louisville’s week one opponent, Alabama, received 42 of the 61 first-place votes cast, and will begin the season at No. 1. No. 2 Clemson received 18 votes for the top spot.
This will the first time in U of L history that the Cardinals will square off against both of the top two teams in the preseason AP poll.
Three more ACC teams — No. 8 Miami, No. 19 Florida State and No. 20 Virginia Tech, also cracked the rankings. U of L opponents NC State (22), Boston College (18) and ... Kentucky (1) ... also received votes.
Here’s the full preseason AP top 25:
- Alabama (42)
- Clemson (18)
- Georgia
- Wisconsin (1)
- Ohio State
- Washington
- Oklahoma
- Miami
- Auburn
- Penn State
- Michigan State
- Notre Dame
- Stanford
- Michigan
- USC
- TCU
- West Virginia
- Mississippi State
- Florida State
- Virginia Tech
- UCF
- Boise State
- Texas
- Oregon
- LSU
Other teams that received votes in the initial poll were South Carolina (96), Florida (68), Utah (60), Oklahoma St. (51), FAU (38), Arizona (28), NC State (22), Texas A&M (21), Boston College (18), Northwestern (13), Kansas St. (10), Iowa St. (8), Houston (6), Memphis (3), Troy (2), Iowa (2), Kentucky (1), Arkansas St. (1), Fresno St. (1).