The Sports Inquirer

By E. Marcel Pourtout, Editor

Seven Southeastern Conference teams have been named to the preseason Amway Coaches Poll, it was announced on Thursday.

The poll was topped by defending national champion Florida State, who received 56 out of 62 first-place votes and 1,543 points overall. Following FSU is Alabama, who are coming off of an 11-win season and garnered 1,455 points. The rest of the top-five is Oklahoma (1,382), Oregon (1,314) and defending SEC champion Auburn (1,271).

South Carolina, coming off their third-straight 11-2 campaign, received 1,009 points, including one first-place vote and are ranked ninth.

Georgia (905) and LSU (833) are ranked 12th and 13th respectively in the poll. Rounding out the other two teams from the SEC in the rankings, Mississippi (346) places 19th and Texas A&M (266) 20th.

The Amway Board of Coaches is made up of 62 head coaches at Bowl Subdivision schools. All are members of the American Football Coaches Association. AFCA policy bars schools under major NCAA or conference sanctions from receiving votes.