USF Football Receives Vote in AP Preseason Top 25

The college football season is almost upon us. We’re days away from the official kickoff of the season when Cal faces off against Hawaii in Australia for some reason.

Another sign of the approaching campaign is the release of the AP preseason Top 25 poll, where South Florida received a vote and two points for consideration. As a refresher, you can read about the methodology and how the poll works here.

USF received their lone vote from Notre Dame beat writer Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune, who slated the Bulls at #24 in his initial ballot. The good people of r/CFB put together a table of how every AP voter laid out their top 25 if you want to check that out.

While preseason polls are really just arbitrary exercises that ultimately won’t mean anything once the season kicks into full gear, it has indeed been a long time since the Bulls have found themselves anywhere near consideration for the top 25. The last time USF found themselves ranked was on September 29, 2011, when the then-16th ranked Bulls traveled to Pitt and got Ray Graham’d.

Other Notables:

• One top 25 team appears on USF’s regular season slate. The Bulls will host #4 Florida State on September 24 in front of what is looking to be a sold-out crowd at Raymond James Stadium.
• Houston and their #HTownTakeover hype train checks in at #15 of the AP poll. While the Bulls and Cougars will not meet in the regular season, both squads are slated as the favorites of their respective divisions, potentially setting up a battle of two ranked foes in the American championship game if things go according to plan.
• Along with USF, several other Group of 5 schools received votes for top 25 consideration, including Boise State, San Diego State, Navy, Western Kentucky, and Toledo. As usual, it will be a season-long dogfight for the right to lock down a spot in a New Year’s Six Bowl.

Here is the entire top 25: