5 big takeaways from the first AP Top 25 poll of the College Football season

Folks, we've finally made it. It feels like it's been so long since we've talked about college football, but we're finally back. The season is here.

We finally got our very first AP Top 25 poll of the season and the top of it looks, pretty much, like you thought it would. But it's less about which teams are at the top of the poll and more about which conferences they represent. Remember, the college football world is much more tightly knit now on paper because of conference realignment around the NCAA.

It's also important to remember that this is the first year we'll have a 12-team College Football Playoff. This isn't the CFP poll — the committee might have a completely different idea for what things should look like. But, at the same time, this definitely gives us a quick glimpse into what our top 12 might look like this season.

With that in mind, let's get into some of these takeaways.

Only four conferences are present in the first poll

We can call this the official end of the "Power 5." It simply doesn't exist anymore since the dismantling of the Pac-12 and this is the proof.

Thanks to conference realignment, only four conferences are present in the top 25 poll.

— The SEC has nine teams

— The Big Ten has six teams

— The Big 12 has five teams

— The ACC has four teams

— Notre Dame is included in the poll at No. 7 but is independent.

The Pac-12's only teams are Washington State and Oregon State. Neither are present in the pole, creating this unprecedented absence.

The SEC is still dominating

The SEC still remains the king conference in college football. Again, the conference has nine teams total in the top 25. But when you dig a bit deeper get gets more impressive.

— Four of the top 6 teams (No. 1 Georgia, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Ole Miss) are from the SEC

— If you stretch that out to the top five, you add four more (No. 11 Missouri, No. 13 LSU, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 16 Oklahoma) giving the conference eight of the top 16 teams in the country.

If that's not dominance, I don't know what is.

Utah would be in the top 4 of the CFP if it started today

The chaos of the 12-team College Football Playoff is on full display with this ranking. Remember, the top four seeds go to the best college football conference champions.

That means, as Big 12 champion, Utah would geta bye week over a team like, say, Michigan who should be one of the best teams in the sport but may lose a tough conference championship game to Ohio State.

It'd also leave room for a team like Boise State as a potential Mountain West conference winner to sneak in in that No. 12 spot. It's chaotic! Look at this.

I cannot wait.

Michigan's big dip

Though Michigan is the reigning national champion, the first top 25 poll doesn't really seem to respect it as such.

Michigan is ranked No. 9, which is obviously a good spot to be in for almost any other team in the NCAA. But for a team coming off of one of the most dominant seasons we've seen in recent years? That's pretty low.

In fact, it's historically low, according to the Associated Press.

"The defending national champion Wolverines said goodbye to coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and 12 other players who were selected in April’s NFL draft. All that attrition led to Michigan receiving the lowest preseason ranking for a defending national champion since 2011, when Auburn was No. 23 after the departure of Cam Newton."

Even without Jim Harbaugh and the number of players who left for the NFL draft, you'd think Michigan might still be one of the seven or so teams in the nation. We'll see where the Wolverines stand by the end of the year.

Colorado only received one point in the poll

Deion Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes received one point in the poll, which means that there was one person out of the 62 people polled for the ranking that included Colorado in the top 25.

Looks like those weird edits worked on somebody. The Buffaloes should be a lot better this season with the team's revamped offensive line. We'll see if Colorado ends up being ranked, though. That's a big leap considering where the team was last season.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: 5 big takeaways from the first AP Top 25 poll of the College Football season