The LSU football team will kick off its 2012 campaign with a No. 3 ranking in the Associated Press preseason poll.  is LSU’s highest preseason ranking since opening the 2007 season in the No. 2 slot, but it represents a downgrade in the wake of junior cornerback Tyrann Mathieu’s dismissal. The Tigers were set to earn the preseason No. 1 ranking in the AP poll for the first time since the 1959 season. LSU initially received 28 out of 60 first-place votes, but the voting deadline was extended following Mathieu’s ousting and 12 first-place votes shifted elsewhere. Expectations are high for the Tigers this season after finishing an otherwise stellar 2011 in uninspiring fashion at the BCS National Championship game. But after Matheiu’s unexpected removal from the team last week, the Tigers will be without their top defensive playmaker. Many voters weren’t entirely sure of Mathieu’s precise impact. Macon (Georgia) Telegraph sports writer Seth Emerson has a vote in the AP poll and moved LSU down to third after the news broke. “How to handle the Mathieu Effect was a conundrum,” Emerson said on his blog. “On the one hand, he wasn’t exactly known as a lock-down cornerback and LSU has plenty of other talent. On the other hand, I was in the Georgia Dome last year when Mathieu single-handedly turned the tide of the SEC championship. He’s a dynamic player.” Others didn’t feel the need to drop LSU in the rankings.