It's pretty rare that there's ever a serious race for No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. Even if there's a debate, it's typically settled long before ballots are cast. Over the last 20 seasons, the difference in first-place votes between No. 1 and 2 has been within 10 ballots only twice.

The most important date of the preseason is here as the AP top 25 college football rankings went live on Monday, and predictably the deck was stacked with SEC a