The UCF Knights, who were ranked No. 17 in the Amway Coaches' Poll earlier this summer, were ranked in the same spot in the preseason Associated Press poll released Monday.
The Knights, who have been ranked in 28 consecutive national polls, dating to Oct. 1, 2017, are 29-1 as a member of the American Athletic Conference as a ranked team. UCF has won 25 of its last 26 games and is the only FBS team with only one loss in the last two seasons combined.
UCF's ranking is the highest preseason rank for an American Athletic Conference team since 2016, when Houston started the season at No. 15.
Cincinnati and Memphis both received votes in the AP preseason poll.
Teams from The American will face eight top-25 opponents in the nonconference portion of the 2019 schedule, including three of the top nine teams in the preason poll (Houston at No. 4 Oklahoma, Cincinnati at No. 5 Ohio State, Navy at No. 9 Notre Dame).
2019 Associated Press Preseason Poll
| 1 |
Clemson |
1,540 |
| 2 |
Alabama |
1,496 |
| 3 |
Georgia |
1,403 |
| 4 |
Oklahoma |
1,331 |
| 5 |
Ohio State |
1,261 |
| 6 |
LSU |
1,199 |
| 7 |
Michigan |
1,164 |
| 8 |
Florida |
1,054 |
| 9 |
Notre Dame |
1,044 |
| 10 |
Texas |
1,005 |
| 11 |
Oregon |
860 |
| 12 |
Texas A&M |
852 |
| 13 |
Washington |
786 |
| 14 |
Utah |
772 |
| 15 |
Penn State |
651 |
| 16 |
Auburn |
578 |
| 17 |
UCF |
410 |
| 18 |
Michigan State |
377 |
| 19 |
Wisconsin |
370 |
| 20 |
Iowa |
330 |
| 21 |
Iowa State |
302 |
| 22 |
Syracuse |
209 |
| 23 |
Washington State |
200 |
| 24 |
Nebraska |
154 |
| 25 |
Stanford |
141 |
Others receiving votes: Missouri 117, Army 94, Mississippi State 87, Miami (Fla.) 70, Northwestern 63, TCU 57, Virginia 44, Boise State 38,
Cincinnati 16, South Carolina 15, Virginia Tech 12, Fresno State 8, Utah State 8, Minnesota 7,
Memphis 6, Appalachian State 5, West Virginia 3, Oklahoma State 3, Arizona State 3, Arizona 1, USC 1