AP Preseason Poll Favors UGA, Ohio State and Oregon While Alabama Comes in at No. 5

Georgia is No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 preseason college football poll for the second straight year as the superconference era begins with the SEC and Big Ten dominating the top 10 of the rankings.

The Bulldogs received 46 first-place votes and 1,532 points in the Top 25 released Monday and the SEC powerhouse finished comfortably ahead of No. 2 Ohio State (15 first-place votes and 1,490 points) of the Big Ten.

Ohio State comes in second with 15 votes while Oregon had a mere one vote in the No. 3 spot.

Associated Press Preseason Top 25

The top 25 teams in the AP preseason poll, released Monday.  First-place votes in parenthesis
1. Georgia (46)   
2. Ohio State (15)   
3. Oregon (1)   
4. Texas   
5. Alabama   
6. Ole Miss   
7. Notre Dame   
8. Penn State   
9. Michigan   
10. Florida State   
11. Missouri  
12. Utah  

So how does this compare with the odds for each team?

These are pretty much in agreement at BetUS.

1001     Georgia         +300
1002     Alabama         +1400
1003     Ohio State         +375
1004     Texas         +800
1005     Michigan         +2500
1006     Oregon         +750
1007     LSU         +1800
1008     Ole Miss         +1500
1009     Florida State         +2500
1010     Clemson         +4000
1011     Penn State         +2200
1012     Notre Dame         +2200
1013     USC         +8000
1014     Oklahoma         +7000
1015     Texas A&M         +4500
1016     Tennessee         +3500

And as you can see, Alabama was No. 2 in the odds but slips to 5th shortest.

Georgia started last season at No. 1 in pursuit of a record third straight national championship. Coach Kirby Smart's Bulldogs stayed there the whole regular season, and then missed the four-team playoff by losing the SEC title game to Alabama.

"We're dealing with new challenges this year," Smart said at SEC media days. "We don't have a chip on our shoulder in terms of people trying to use that as motivation. I've never used a failure from the previous year as motivation and never used the success of a previous year as motivation; we won't do that this year. That's not who we are. We want to recreate ourselves to stay in the best light we can."

There will be more room for error this season with the playoff expanding from four to 12 teams.

The Bulldogs are 42-2 over the last three seasons and loaded again.