Alabama is unanimous No. 1 in preseason computer ranking

Alabama starts the 2016 season as the unanimous top team in the FBS, according to the former Bowl Championship Series computers.

Clemson, the runner-up to the Crimson Tide for last season's national championship, is No. 2 in the preseason College Football Computer Composite (CFCC) rankings followed by Ohio State and the team Clemson beat in last season's College Football Playoff semifinals.

Last season's four Playoff teams started No. 2 (Alabama), No. 5 (Michigan State), No. 11 (Clemson) and No. 21 (Oklahoma) in the preseason CFCC.

Excluding Notre Dame's matchups in the ACC, there are only 33 regular season games pitting Power Five teams from different conferences, many of them happening in Week 1 and 2. Their outcomes will have a big impact on these ratings going forward.

The College Football Computer Composite combines five of the computer formulas used in the former BCS standings to remove the human element from college football rankings. It is compiled by taking the geometric mean of rankings formulated by Richard Billingsley, Wes Colley, Ken Massey, Peter Wolfe and Jeff Sagarin.

Among the metrics feeding the CFCC are wins and losses, strength of schedule, home-field advantage, recency of game and, in Massey and Sagarin's case, margin of victory.

Updated CFCC rankings are published each week during the season on FootballFour.com and below.