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SALT LAKE CITY — The Associated Press released its preseason Top 25 poll Sunday, and Utah is in the “receiving votes” category of the poll.
The Utes, coming off a 10-win season last year, come into the 2016 season unranked, but the third highest team receiving votes in the poll. Utah spent much of the 2015 season in the Top 25, climbing as high as No. 3 midway through the season. The program finished at No. 17 after beating BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl.
The Pac-12 features five teams in this year’s preseason poll, including Stanford (8), Washington (14), UCLA (16), USC (20) and Oregon (24). Washington State also received votes in the poll, following Utah. The Pac-12 follows only the SEC, who had six teams ranked in the Top 25, in terms of teams ranked in the poll.
Utah will face four programs in the preseason Top 25 this year, including games against Washington, UCLA, USC and Oregon. Three of those four games will be at home, with UCLA being the only road game.
Perennial favorite Alabama was voted as this year’s No. 1 team, followed by Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida State and LSU. Rounding out the top 10 is Ohio State, Michigan, Stanford, Tennessee and Notre Dame.
