OXFORD (AP) — Ole Miss begins the new college football season ranked 17th by the Associated Press in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, while Mississippi State just missed a spot in the poll.

The first AP Poll of the season was released early Sunday afternoon.

Ole Miss is one of a conference high eight SEC teams ranked in the AP Top 25. Others are Alabama (3), Auburn (6), Georgia (9), LSU (14), Arkansas (18), Missouri (24) and Tennessee (25).

Two more SEC teams, Mississippi State and Texas A&M, received the 26th and 27th most votes in the initial poll. The Volunteers got 114 votes, MSU 100 and The Aggies got 61.

Ohio State is the first unanimous preseason No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll.

The defending national champion Buckeyes received all 61 first-place votes from the media panel in the rankings released Sunday.

TCU is No. 2, followed by Alabama, Baylor and Michigan State.

The Buckeyes won the first College Football Playoff championship last season and are trying to become the 12th team to win consecutive AP titles since the poll began in 1936.

Preseason rankings date back to 1950. Since then no team had received more than 97 percent of the first-place votes in a preseason poll.

In 2013, Alabama, which had won two straight championships, received 58 of 60 first-place votes and defending champion Florida did the same in 2009. Neither finished the season No. 1.