The first Associated Press poll of the season is out and Stanford comes in at number 8. Several Stanford opponents also found themselves in the top 25 providing further evidence that the Cardinal has a brutal 2016 schedule. Notre Dame came in ranked at 10th, Washington 14, UCLA 16, USC 20, and Oregon 24th.
It is important to remember that the AP poll officially has no bearing on which teams make the playoffs. Furthermore, a preseason poll is largely meaningless because no one has played a single down of football yet. The preseason polls, however, do have an impact future polls once the season starts and for better or worse tend to help shape the national narrative surrounding teams.