AP top 25 poll: Georgia, Ohio State lead college football rankings for 2024 preseason

Where things stand in the AP top 25 preseason college football rankings ahead of a historic 2024 season marked by conference realignment and the expanded playoff.

Georgia and Ohio State sit atop the AP top 25 preseason college football rankings looking ahead to a historic 2024 kickoff. / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The most important date on the preseason schedule has arrived as the AP top 25 preseason college football rankings have been voted on and revealed just two weeks before what figures to be a historic 2024 kickoff marked by conference realignment and an expanded playoff.

Thanks to that realignment, it’s expected the race to the national title will run through either the SEC or the Big Ten, and as expected, those two conferences take up most of the room at the top of the 2024 preseason football rankings, according to AP voters.

AP top 25 football rankings

First-place votes in parentheses

1. Georgia (46)
2. Ohio State (15)
3. Oregon (1)
4. Texas
5. Alabama
6. Ole Miss
7. Notre Dame
8. Penn State
9. Michigan
10. Florida State
11. Missouri
12. Utah
13. LSU
14. Clemson
15. Tennessee
16. Oklahoma
17. Oklahoma State
18. Kansas State
19. Miami
20. Texas A&M
21. Arizona
22. Kansas
23. USC
24. NC State
25. Iowa

How did we do? Our AP top 25 rankings prediction

Other teams receiving votes

Louisville 111, Virginia Tech 77, Boise St. 47, SMU 33, Iowa St. 33, Liberty 32, Washington 23, West Virginia 17, Memphis 16, Nebraska 16, Wisconsin 15, UTSA 6, Tulane 5, Appalachian St. 4, Kentucky 3, Auburn 2, Colorado 1.

Rankings: Coaches Poll | ESPN top 25 teams

AP top 25 poll need to know

S-E-C. As expected, the SEC leads the way in the AP top 25 rankings with nine teams featured in the preseason poll, followed by the Big Ten with six teams selected.

No. 1 teams. During the decade-long College Football Playoff era, only three top-ranked AP preseason teams have missed the CFP: Ohio State in 2015, Alabama in 2022, and Georgia in 2023. But only one team, Alabama in 2017, began the season at No. 1 in the AP rankings and won the national championship.

Unranked teams: Two teams that didn’t appear in the AP top 25 preseason rankings went on to make the College Football Playoff: Michigan in 2021 and TCU in 2022.

Roll Tide: Nick Saban is out and Kalen DeBoer is in as head coach at Alabama, with arguably the biggest succession job in college football history.

B1G rivals: Ohio State has dropped three straight to Michigan, but is favored to win back the rivalry this season, with Ryan Day under enormous pressure to right the ship after getting major production back combined with incoming blue-chip transfers.

AP history: Ohio State remains the most successful team in preseason history, ranking No. 1 all-time with 71 appearances in the preseason rankings, appearing in more than 95 percent of early polls since 1950. It’s also the most successful all-time with 983 appearances in the regular season AP top 25 rankings, more than 80 percent of all polls since 1936.

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