Ohio State, Oregon headline preseason AP college football poll - ESPN

Ohio State and Oregon were 1-2 in the Associated Press Top 25 released Monday, giving the Big Ten Conference the top two teams in the preseason rankings for the first time in 65 years and just the second time ever.

The Buckeyes received 40 first-place votes and Oregon received 14 in voting by 69 media members who cover college football for the AP and other news organizations.

Ohio State will go into a season ranked No. 1 for the ninth time, and first since 2015. The Buckeyes are now tied with Alabama for second-most preseason No. 1 rankings behind Oklahoma's 10.

The top 25 teams in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 college football poll, released Monday (first-place votes in parentheses).

Oregon has its highest preseason ranking in program history after having opened No. 3 four times.

Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas round out the top five.

«I love the polls for college football fans, for the excitement, for the marquee matchups, for all those things,» Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. «But the polls, internally, they just don't matter. They're really irrelevant. I think we've gotten to a point now as a team to understand that what matters is how we play each and every Saturday.»

Defending national champion Indiana starts at No. 6 and is followed by Miami, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Oklahoma.

Notre Dame received six first-place votes, Indiana got eight and Miami one.

This is the first year a conference has held down the top two spots in the preseason poll since Oklahoma and Nebraska of the Big Eight were 1-2 in 1987.

The last time the Big Ten had the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the preseason was 1961, when Iowa and Ohio State topped the poll. The Hawkeyes lost four of their last five games after a 4-0 start and finished that