Preseason AP Poll Rankings: Texas Penn State Ohio State Clemson Georgia Notre Dame Oregon Alabama LSU Miami Arizona State Illinois South Carolina Michigan Florida SMU Kansas State Oklahoma Texas A&M Indiana Ole Miss Iowa State Texas Tech Tennessee Boise State
They killed it in the 23 cycle but not so much 22 or 24. 2023 Clemson Tigers Football Industry Comparison Commits
The complement of that statement, "At least one preseason top 10 ranked teams has finished UNRANKED in 18 of the last 20 years". So, which of the following could be unranked: 1 Texas 2 Penn St 3 Ohio St 4 Clemson 5 Georgia 6 Notre Dame? 7 Oregon 8 Alabama? 9 LSU? 10 Miami ? ============================== Notably in the 2024 season, it was #10 ranked Florida State that finshed 2-10 and unranked. ================================ Since some are picking LSU as a darkhorse candidate to win the SEC title, I will go with LSU, lol! ============================================ (edit) In 2024, preseason #5 Alabama who had a new coach replacing Nick Saban finished 9-4 and ranked #17 (The Tide also lost to Michigan in their bowl game). In 2025, Alabama is ranked only #8 and plays the following teams that could potentially derail the Tide's season: at FSU (try not to laugh), Wisconsin, at #5 Georgia, Vanderbilt (gave AL their first loss in 2024), at Missouri, #24 Tennessee, at #13 S.Carolina, #9 LSU, at #18 Oklahoma, and at Auburn. Alabama could potentially be another candidate to finish ?unranked or at least miss the playoffs again. ========================================== Some pretty good candidates that could go from unranked to top 10: Southern Cal, Utah, ?Georgia Tech (I still remember Kirby Smart calling timeouts after every overtime (8 OT game) to see what offensive formation that the Yellow Jackets were in before making a defensive adjustment to counter). Georgia 44-42 Georgia Tech (Nov 29, 2024) Game Recap - ESPN
Regarding my previous post, In 2022, ?Jimbo Fischer's Texas AM was #6 in the preseason before finishing unranked in that final poll. Also, TCU was unranked in 2022 before finishing #2 in the final AP poll. 2022 AP Poll College Football Rankings, Preseason - ESPN 2022 AP Poll College Football Rankings, Final Rankings - ESPN In 2023, it was Lincoln Riley's #6 USCw that finished unranked. In 2023, Missouri was unranked to start the season before finishing #8 in the final AP poll. 2023 AP Poll College Football Rankings, Preseason - ESPN 2023 AP Poll College Football Rankings, Final Rankings - ESPN In 2024, not only did preseason #10 Florida State finish unranked but #9 defending national champion, Michigan also finished unranked. However, the Wolverines continued to own their nemesis, the Ohio State buckeyes, by defeating the eventual 2024 national champion (13-10) for the 4th straight year! Isn't college football unpredictable? Michigan 13-10 Ohio State (Nov 30, 2024) Game Recap - ESPN In 2024, Michigan (7-5, 5-4 to 8-5 after bowl game) ended up with same record as Florida (7-5, 4-4 to 8-5 after beating Tulane). In 2024, Indiana was the team that began unranked before finishing #10 and playing in the CFP's. Additionally, Arizona State (#7) & Boise St (#8) were preseason unranked teams that managed to make the first CF-playoffs! So, three unranked preseason teams made the playoffs; I think that is incredible! 2024 AP Poll College Football Rankings, Preseason - ESPN 2024 AP Poll College Football Rankings, Final Rankings - ESPN Someone else here, if they like, could keep doing more research on this preseason/final top 10 rankings. This was just a fascinating statistic/trend in the last two or three decades of college football. There were also many teams who were ranked 11-25 that finished in the final top 10. Last year, #15 Tennessee comes to mind. Incidentally, Ole Miss was ranked #11 but were not invited to the 2024 CF-playoffs! Tough luck to Lane Kiffen and the ?rebels. Guess who is #15 in the 2025 preseason AP poll?
Until the 2025 season, Texas also was never preseason #1 in either the AP Poll nor the Coaches poll. I guess being in the SEC helped the Longhorns' reputation afterall, lol. It also helps that the SEC when it invited both Oklahoma & Texas gave the Longhorns a very soft schedule in comparison to Oklahoma. In the SEC, UT has games at #15 UF, #18 OU; at Kentucky, at Miss St, Vanderbilt; at #5 Georgia, Arkansas, and #19 Texas AM. Nonconfernce games for the Longhorns include at #3 Ohio St and three straight tune-up games (vs San Jose ST, UTEP & Sam Houston) and a week off before facing Florida in the Swamp.
Many media types have stated when they rank teams it’s based on who they feel is the best, not the predicted order of how they think they’ll finish. I think that plays a lot into it.
