Since the first preseason AP poll in 1950, nearly all the teams selected as No. 1 have finished the season in at least the Top 10 except for these most recent examples:Expectations were so high for Lane Kiffin’s Trojans in 2012 that his team received eight more preseason first-place votes than Alabama, the defending national champion. Poll voters quickly corrected the order after weighing both teams’ season openers — Alabama’s 42-14 pounding of No. 8 Michigan at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, compared to USC’s 49-10 home win over a weak Hawaii team. The Trojans lost two weeks later to Stanford, falling out of the Top 10 for good. They lost five of their last six games to finish unranked with a 7-6 record. The team was the first AP preseason No. 1 to not finish ranked since Mississippi in 1964. Kiffin was fired early the next season.
Final poll: Absent
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2011 Oklahoma
The last time the Sooners were No. 1 in any AP Top 25 was the fourth week of the 2011 season. Oklahoma had cruised through its season-opening games, including a 23-13 win over No. 5 Florida State in the third week, but still fell to No. 2 the following week as LSU impressed poll voters more with three strong wins over ranked teams. The Tigers went on to hold the No. 1 spot the rest of the season before losing to Alabama in the national title game. Oklahoma ended up losing to Texas Tech, Baylor and Oklahoma State.
Final Poll: No. 16
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2008 Georgia
It was the first and only preseason No. 1 for the Bulldogs. Georgia entered the season having won their last seven games of 2007 with its future NFL quarterback, Matthew Stafford, returning to call the plays. The Dawgs started the year with blowouts against Georgia Southern and Central Michigan only to be replaced by USC at No. 1 after the poll voters couldn’t overlook the Trojans’ 35-3 win over No. 5 Ohio State. Several weeks later, Georgia lost to its first ranked opponent, No. 8 Alabama, and then later fell to its top rivals Florida and Georgia Tech.
Final Poll: No. 13
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1997 Penn State
Nine teams received preseason first-place votes. Nittany Lions had the most with 21, followed by No. 2 Florida with 12, No. 3 Florida State with 7, and No. 4 Washington with 10. Penn State easily won its first two games against unranked challengers before dropping to No. 2 behind Florida, which beat No. 4 Tennessee the week before. Penn State would regain No. 1 three weeks later after Florida lost to No. 14 LSU and the Nittany Lions beat No. 7 Ohio State. It’s stay at the top was for only a week as it was nudged out by Tom Osborne’s last Nebraska team the next three weeks before Penn State lost three of its last five games to Michigan, Michigan State and Florida.
Final Poll: 16
1984 Auburn
The season didn’t start the way the Tigers had hoped. The season opener was a 20-18 loss to No. 14 Miami in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Their next game was a 35-27 loss to No. 4 Texas in Austin, where Bo Jackson left the game with a separated shoulder. Auburn would recover from the two-loss start to win six in a row before losing to Florida and Alabama and finishing 9-4.
Final Poll: 14