NEW YORK — Alabama will begin this season the way it ended the last two — No. 1.

Nick Saban and the two-time defending national champion Crimson Tide are top-ranked in The Associated Press preseason college football poll as they try to become the first team to win three straight national titles.

Much like the BCS championship game against Notre Dame, the vote was an Alabama landslide. The Tide received 58 of 60 first-place votes from the media panel to easily outdistance No. 2 Ohio State and match Florida in 2009 for the highest percentage of first-place votes received in the 63-year history of the preseason rankings.

The Buckeyes received one first-place vote.

Oregon is No. 3, followed by Stanford and Georgia, which received the other first-place vote.