In the AP’s college football preseason top 25 rankings released Monday, Georgia comes in at No. 4. The top-three teams in the country heading into the 2020 season are Clemson, Ohio State and Alabama in that order.

Emblematic of the effects of COVID-19 on the 2020 college football season, nine of the country’s preseason top-25 programs are members of conferences that have decided to postpone fall sports until 2021.

Neither of the two Big Ten teams in the top 10, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 7 Penn State will compete this fall. In addition, four other Big Ten teams and three Pac-12 teams, including No. 9 Oregon, saw their seasons postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The SEC has the biggest presence among Power Five conferences in the AP preseason rankings with seven teams, followed by six from the Big Ten, four from the Pac-12 and three from the Big 12 and the ACC respectively. No. 10 Notre Dame will compete for the ACC championship this season.

Georgia will play four preseason top 25 teams in its first six games. The No. 4 Bulldogs face No. 11 Auburn in game two, No. 25 Tennessee in game three, No. 3 Alabama in game four and No. 8 Florida in game six. Texas A&M and LSU do not appear on Georgia’s schedule, finalized by the SEC on Aug. 21.

Printed with permission from The Red & Black independent student media organization based in Athens, Georgia; redandblack.com/sports