Action Network's Brett McMurphy Tabs Suprise Team Number One on His AP Ballot

Brett McMurphy, a former college football columnist at ESPN and cbs.com, currently the feature college football writer at the Action Network, picked the Oregon Ducks number one on his preseason AP ballot, ahead of Georgia and Ohio State.

The full preseason AP ranking will be released Monday August 12. Sixty-two sports writers from around the country have an AP ballot. All of their votes are publicized, and during the season the results are released on Sundays at 2:00 P.M. Eastern, unless there are games being played on Sunday or Monday as they are in Week One.

McMurphy released his AP ballot in his column on the Action Network, and so far he's the first of the 62 voters to do so. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury-News and Seattle Times has a vote as well; he typically votes the Ducks lower.

About Oregon, McMurphy writes:

Of the last three coaches at Oregon with double-digit victories in consecutive seasons (Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich and Dan Lanning), Lanning is the only one who has not reached a BCS title game or College Football Playoff.

That changes this season.

Wide receiver Tez Johnson returns, while Oregon also added running back Jay Harris, a Division II All-American from Northwest Missouri State, and Kansas State transfer safety Kobe Savage.

With Lanning’s emphasis on the trenches — which are anchored by offensive tackle Ajani Cornelius and defensive lineman transfer Jamaree Caldwell — expect Oregon to continue the dominance it showed last year.

Excluding the two losses to Washington, Oregon averaged a 32-point winning margin per game and 250 yards more on offense per game against its other 12 opponents last season.

With 11 returning starters bolstered by a top-six national recruiting class, plus transfer quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel from Oklahoma and Dante Moore from UCLA, the Ducks should be flying high again in 2024.

The Ducks got their first number one AP ranking ever in October 2010. They are currently third in the preseason Coaches' Poll. They've finished in the Top Ten in the final AP poll 10 times, all since 2000:

Ducks in the AP Final ballot: