By The Associated Press

Oklahoma opens the college football season atop the Associated Press poll for a record ninth time, beating out defending national champion Ohio State for the No. 1 ranking in voting released Saturday.

Oklahoma got 32 first-place votes and 1,573 points to Ohio State's 27 firsts and 1,532 points from the 65 sports writers and broadcasters on the AP panel. It's the widest margin in the preseason Top 25 since 1999, when Florida State had 77 more points than Tennessee.

Oklahoma, which won its seventh AP title in 2000, also was the No. 1 preseason pick in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, released July 31. The coaches had the same top three teams as the AP, with the Miami Hurricanes third.

For the sixth time in the past seven years, the defending champion did not start the next season at the top of the poll.

The first regular-season AP poll will be Sept. 1.

AP Top 25

The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press preseason college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, 2002 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and final ranking:

	Record	Pts	Pvs
1. Oklahoma (32)	12-2	1,573	5
2. Ohio St. (27)	14-0	1,532	1
3. Miami (2)	12-1	1,484	2
4. Michigan (2)	10-3	1,329	9
5. Texas	11-2	1,322	6
6. Auburn (1)	9-4	1,300	14
7. Kansas St. (1)	11-2	1,221	7
8. Southern Cal	11-2	1,126	4
9. Virginia Tech	10-4	1,046	18
10. Pittsburgh	9-4	952	19
11. Georgia	13-1	928	3
12. Tennessee	8-5	766	-
13. Florida St.	9-5	737	21
14. LSU	8-5	736	-
15. Maryland	11-3	705	13
16. N.C. State	11-3	678	12
17. Washington	7-6	643	-
18. Virginia	9-5	557	22
19. Purdue	7-6	468	-
20. Notre Dame	10-3	439	17
21. Wisconsin	8-6	350	-
22. Arizona St.	8-6	248	-
23. Colorado St.	10-4	205	-
24. Oklahoma St.	8-5	156	-
25. TCU	10-2	95	23

Others receiving votes: Florida 79, Nebraska 68, Oregon St. 68, Penn St. 56, Texas A&M 40, Alabama 33, Colorado 27, Arkansas 26, Missouri 22, Fresno St. 21, Mississippi 20, Minnesota 18, Boise St. 10, Oregon 10, Air Force 8, Iowa 8, Miami U. 5, Southern Miss. 3, Boston College 2, Hawaii 2, Washington St. 2, West Virginia 1.