AP Top 25 college football preseason poll: Amid changes, No. 1 Georgia back as favorite

After going nearly two decades without appearing the Associated Press Top 25 college football preseason poll, the N.C. State Wolfpack is included in the rankings for the second time in three years.

This year’s AP preseason poll, released Monday, has N.C. State at No. 24.

After starting last season unranked, the Wolfpack made three poll appearances, climbing as high as No. 19 before posting a 9-4 record to end the season at No. 21. N.C. State was included in the preseason poll in 2022, marking its first preseason AP poll appearance since 2003.

N.C. State is one of four ACC teams in the preseason top 25, with league favorite Florida State coming in at No. 10, followed by No. 14 Clemson and No. 19 Miami.

The SEC, now expanded to 16 teams with Texas and Oklahoma among its ranks, has nine teams in the preseason poll. No. 1 Georgia tops the list with No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Mississippi among the top 10.

Last year’s national champion, Michigan, starts this season at No. 9. The Wolverines are among six Big Ten teams in the top 25 as that league is bolstered by the additions of Oregon, Washington, UCLA and Southern California to its membership.

No. 3 Oregon joins No. 2 Ohio State, No. 8 Penn State and No. 9 Michigan as Big Ten teams in the top 10. No. 23 USC and No. 25 Iowa are among the lowest teams ranked.

Associated Press Top 25 poll

Steve Wiseman’s AP Top 25 ballot

The college football season begins later this month, and will again feature massive changes from years past:

▪ The College Football Playoff triples in size to 12 teams.

▪ The SEC adds big-time football practitioners Texas and Oklahoma.

▪ The Pac-12 is no more, with its teams scattered to the Big 10, Big 12, ACC and ... whatever Oregon State and Washington State are doing these days.

Here’s what hasn’t changed: The SEC is the biggest, baddest football league in the land.

That doesn’t mean it will produce the national champion every season. Hat tip to Michigan for climbing the sport’s mountain last season.

But it does mean the SEC will have more teams equipped to win the title that any league on an annual basis.

Thus, the preseason top 25 ballot I, as one of the nationwide panel of voters, submitted to the Associated Press this month.

I placed Georgia at No. 1 with two other SEC teams — No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Alabama — also in the top five. With Ole Miss at No. 8 and LSU at No. 10, that’s half of my top 10 from the same league. Complain if you want, but the talent on those rosters justifies the preseason hype.

Reigning champion Michigan lost too much talent, not to mention coach Jim Harbaugh, to repeat as national champion. Usually a team that wins it all has a carry-over effect to the next season’s preseason poll based on returning talent. But this isn’t one of those times, and I have the Wolverines at No. 13.

That makes Michigan the fourth-highest team from the Big 10 in my top 25. With Oregon in the league now, and at No. 4 on my preseason ballot, the Big 10 has more top teams among its ranks.

In recent years whomever emerged from Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State became the league’s top team. Oregon and Washington will have a say in that power dynamic going forward.

Florida State looks like the ACC’s best team again and, unlike last season, it will be in the playoff if it wins another league championship. Clemson and NC State look like the teams to challenge the Seminoles so they’re among my top 25 as well.

Utah is the preseason favorite to win the newly-expanded Big 12 but, in my opinion, that’s not worthy of a top-10 vote just yet. Utah, Kansas State and Oklahoma State were voted as the top three teams in the league’s preseason poll, yet Pro Football Focus analytics-based projections have none of them among the nation’s top 20 teams.

While I’m not THAT down on the Big 12, let’s see how the first few weeks play out with the Utes.

The only team from a Group of Five league I included in my rankings is Memphis, the favorite to win the American Athletic Conference.

Part of this is due to power conference expansion. Former Group of Five stalwarts like UCF and Cincinnati are now in the Big 12. SMU would probably push Memphis for the American but it jumped to the ACC this season.

This story was originally published August 12, 2024 at 5:00 AM.

Steve Wiseman

The News & Observer

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Steve Wiseman was named Raleigh News & Observer and Durham Herald-Sun sports editor in May 2025. He covered Duke athletics, beginning in 2010, prior to his current assignment. In the Associated Press Sports Editors national contest, he placed in the top 10 in beat writing in 2019, 2021 and 2022, breaking news in 2019, event coverage in 2025 and explanatory writing in 2018. Before coming to Durham in 2010, Steve worked for The State (Columbia, SC), Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, S.C.), The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.), Charlotte Observer and Hickory (NC) Daily Record covering beats including the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints, University of South Carolina athletics and the S.C. General Assembly. He’s won numerous state-level press association awards. Steve graduated from Illinois State University in 1989.