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Seventy-five years after its first appearance, the once-dominant Associated Press poll’s greatest virtue at this point is its role as curmudgeonly counterweight to the new world order wrought by television networks, corporate sponsors and revenue-hungry conferences: The AP not only refuses to participate in the newfangled “BCS” fad, but occasionally rejects the premises altogether. And yet, even the contrarian writers can’t resist the overwhelming tide pegging Alabama as the favorite to repeat as national champion.

‘Bama picked up 54 of 60 first-place votes in the AP’s preseason poll, released this morning, echoing the near-unanimity for the Tide in the preseason Coaches’ poll and just about every other preseason poll that came before them this summer. (See the entire poll here.) Like Florida last year and USC in 2005 and 2007, there is no argument about who begins the season as No. 1 – though it must be added that all three of those supremely talented outfits ultimately fell short of the title, and none of them entered the season with anywhere near the question marks surrounding the 2010 Crimson Tide in the wake of staggering attrition from 2009′s chart-topping defense. In fact, the last team to start and finish atop the AP poll was Florida State, which went coast-to-coast at No. 1 way back in 1999.

In general, though, if you’re looking for an argument with the status quo, the AP poll isn’t the place to find it. The top five – Alabama, Ohio State, Boise State, Florida and Texas –