But it’s hard to imagine that defending national champion Florida will prove worthy of its Associated Press preseason No. 6 ranking.

The Gators lose nine starters off a defense that ranked sixth in the country last year in points and yards allowed. Four of the starters left to take a shot at the NFL despite having a year of eligibility remaining.

Senior quarterback Chris Leak is gone, too, and although sophomore Tim Tebow appears to be a capable replacement, SEC teams with a first-year starter usually seem to lose a game or two based solely on that alone.

So if Urban Meyer’s Gators can regroup and put themselves on the short list of teams competing late in the season for a championship, then that might be more impressive than what they did last year.

Considering that Auburn finished last season No. 9 in the final AP rankings and has a senior quarterback returning in Brandon Cox, it’s easy to think the Tigers would’ve made at least the top 15.

So what about the thought that last year’s finish shouldn’t affect this year’s rankings

But if Florida deserves a No. 6 preseason ranking, then Auburn shouldn’t be that much further behind.

It’s so hard, however, to get through a tough regular season and then a national championship game and hold the No. 1 ranking in the first and last polls.

In the last 20 years, only three teams have done it — Southern California in 2004 and Florida State in 1993 and ’99. It’s interesting to note that none of those teams played a conference championship game.

Bring it to the SEC, Southern California, and we’ll see how many national championship games you would have after that.

Another tradition-rich program, Texas, never has been the AP preseason No. 1.

Notre Dame has to go back all the way to 1971.

Several of you did, and the most common game mentioned was the fantastic Auburn-LSU matchup, which will be Oct. 20 in Baton Rouge, La. That’s a worthy submission.

An LSU fan, Daniel J. Dubois, who is a master sergeant in the United States Air Force, sent along an on-the-money comment: “I am a little bit biased, but the LSU-Auburn rivalry is one of the best rivalries in the country because the winner of that game has the inside track to the SEC West crown (although Arkansas threw a monkey wrench in that last year). The games are usually hard fought, close games that come down to the last minute.”

He’s right, of course. In the past three years, Auburn has won twice, but the three games were decided by a combined nine points and weren’t decided until the end.