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Defending national champion Alabama is the No. 1-ranked team in The Associated Press preseason poll that was unveiled Saturday.
Ohio State, Boise State, Florida and Texas round out the top five.
Pitt is the highest-ranked Big East Conference team at No. 15. Penn State is No. 19 and West Virginia is No. 25.
Pitt's ranking is its highest in a preseason poll in the past seven years. In 2003, the Panthers debuted at No. 10 in the AP poll.
Pitt and West Virginia are the only Big East teams that are ranked. The Southeastern Conference has the most ranked teams with six, followed by the Atlantic Coast Conference with five.
Alabama is the preseason No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time since 1978. Only 10 of the 60 previous preseason No. 1 teams have won the national championship. And only two (Florida State in 1999 and Southern California in 2004) have held the top spot for the entire season.
PDFAlabama received 54 of the 60 first-place votes from the media panel. Ohio State received three first-place votes. Boise State, Texas and Oklahoma received one first-place vote apiece.
"What was accomplished by last year's team has nothing to do with this year's team," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "The players have to understand that. This team has to develop an image, an identity of its own by its performance. What was accomplished last year is just a standard for somebody else to top. Complacency is the reason the mighty fall."
Only 10 of the 60 previous preseason No. 1 teams have won the national championship. And only two (Florida State in '99 and Southern California in '04) have held the top spot for the entire season.
Boise State, which plays in the Western Athletic Conference, notched its best preseason ranking. Another non-Bowl Championship Series conference school, Texas Christian, debuted in the top 10 as well. The Horned Frogs, who play in the Mountain West Conference, are No. 6.
It is the first time that two non-BCS conference schools started the season ranked in the top 10 since the BCS was formed in 1999.
Southern California debuted at No. 14. It's the first time since 2002 that the Trojans did not begin the season ranked in the top 10.
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