In a way, the 2016 season will pick up where 2015 left off: Alabama is No. 1 and Clemson is 2.

The defending national champion Crimson Tide is the No. 1 team in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 for the fifth time overall and third time under Coach Nick Saban.

The Tide received 33 of 61 first-place votes from the media panel and 1,469 points in the poll released Sunday. No. 2 Clemson, which lost a thrilling College Football Playoff championship game to Alabama in January, received 16 first-place votes and 1,443 points. This is the first time since 1992 that the teams that ended the previous season at Nos. 1 and 2 in the AP poll began the next season in the same spots. Miami and Washington did it that season.

Oklahoma is No. 3 in the preseason poll and received four first-place votes. No. 4 Florida State had five first-place votes. No. 5 LSU, No. 6 Ohio State and No. 7 Michigan all received one first-place vote.

Seven teams received first-place votes, the most in the preseason since 1998.

NOTRE DAME: Starting safety Max Redfield was kicked off the team and reserve cornerback Devin Butler was suspended indefinitely after they were arrested in separate incidents. Four others arrested with Redfield face internal discipline, the school said.

Butler, who already was out until October with a broken foot, was taken into custody early Saturday after a police officer said the player punched and slammed him to the ground outside a bar.

Redfield and the four other players – running back Dexter Williams, linebacker Te’von Coney, wide receiver Kevin Stepherson Jr. and cornerback Ashton White – were arrested Friday night after Indiana State Police said a trooper stopped a car in Fulton County, about 35 miles south of South Bend, for speeding.

The trooper detected the odor of marijuana and with the help of a drug-sniffing dog, he found the marijuana and a handgun, police said.