SEC, Big Ten dominate AP Top 25 with Georgia No. 1 (2024)

Georgia is ranked No. 1 in college football’s preseason AP Top 25 poll, which was released Monday. It’s the second year in a row and third time overall the Bulldogs have opened the season at No. 1. They finished No. 13 from the top spot in 2008 and No. 4 in 2023.

Their recent national championships in 2021 and 2022 were won from No. 5 and No. 3, respectively.

Georgia received 46 of 62 first-place votes, while No. 2 Ohio State received 15 and No. 3 Oregon received one. Texas and Alabama round out the top five, with Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan and Florida State forming the rest of the top 10.

No. 6 is Ole Miss’ highest preseason ranking since 1970; the Rebels haven’t finished in the top five since 1962. At No. 9, Michigan has the lowest ranking for a defending national champion since Auburn opened the 2011 season 23rd.

Washington, which lost to Michigan in the national title game, is unranked. It’s the first time in the BCS/CFP era a national title game participant started the next season unranked (TCU started 17th and finished unranked last year).

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

New era for rankings

Conference realignment has led to consolidation of top teams into what’s now a Power 4 — with the SEC and Big Ten establishing themselves on their own tier above the ACC and Big 12 and Pac-12 gone altogether.

It’s a divide reflected in the preseason Top 25, which features a staggering nine ranked teams from the SEC, all in the top 20. The Big Ten has six, Big 12 has five and ACC has four, with independent Notre Dame ranked, too. No teams from the Group of 5 cracked the initial rankings.

What’s most noticeable is the top of the rankings: Eight of the top nine teams are in the SEC or Big Ten, with the exception being independent Notre Dame.

What CFP would look like using preseason AP poll

Though the SEC and Big Ten may be dominating the top, only the champion from each can secure a top-four seed and first-round bye in the expanded College Football Playoff.

The top four seeds will go to the four best conference champions, with a fifth conference champion also getting a CFP bid. Teams seeded No. 5 through No. 8 will host first-round CFP games. Notre Dame, which does not have a conference championship game to play in, cannot get a first-round bye.

Here’s what the 12-team CFP would look like using the preseason AP rankings:

1. Georgia (SEC)
2. Ohio State (Big Ten)
3. Florida State (ACC)
4. Utah (Big 12)

No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 12 Boise State (Mountain West)
No. 6 Texas vs. No. 11 Michigan
No. 7 Alabama vs. No. 10 Penn State
No. 8 Ole Miss vs. No. 9 Notre Dame

Despite being ranked No. 10 and No. 12, respectively, Florida State and Utah would get top-four seeds as conference champions.

Boise State slots in as the last automatic bid as the top Group of 5 team receiving votes. Oregon, Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss would host first-round games. No. 11 Missouri would get left out of a 12-team field because it’s leaped by conference champions Utah and Boise State.

Who’s underrated and overrated?

Overrated: The teams with the biggest differences between the poll and my ballot are No. 6 Ole Miss (who I have ranked No. 12) and No. 11 Missouri (who I have ranked No. 20). Though the SEC is more stacked than ever with 16 teams, there are only so many wins to go around.

It’s inevitable some of the higher-ranked teams will fall a bit — and I happen to be a bit higher on SEC teams like No. 13 LSU (ninth on my ballot), with a great offensive line protecting a high-potential QB in Garrett Nussmeier, and No. 20 Texas A&M (17th on my ballot), with a potentially dominant defense under Mike Elko.

I also didn’t rank USC and Iowa, instead opting for some Group of 5 love for Memphis and Boise State.

Underrated: I have a pair of teams five spots higher on my ballot than they appear in the poll. One is No. 18 Kansas State, which I have 13th, as the top challenger to Utah in the new-look Big 12 behind a breakout QB in Avery Johnson. The other is No. 19 Miami, which I have 14th.

This is Miami’s best chance yet to capture an ACC title, after 20 years, thanks in part to an influx of talent that includes Washington State transfer quarterback Cam Ward and Oregon State transfer running back Damien Martinez.

What to watch in Week 1

The first ranked team to play will be No. 10 Florida State, which travels to Ireland to face Georgia Tech in a Week 0 game on Aug. 24.

The first full week, Labor Day weekend, will include three matchups between ranked teams: No. 7 Notre Dame at No. 20 Texas A&M and No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 14 Clemson in Atlanta on Saturday, Aug. 31, plus No. 23 USC vs. No. 13 LSU in Las Vegas on Sunday, Sept. 1.

Required reading

• College Football Playoff 2024 sleepers: 13 unranked teams who can crash 12-team field
• Big Ten vs. SEC: Who would win a 16-game showdown between 2 deepest conferences?
• How much does it cost to raise a blue-chip QB? The path to prominence is not cheap

(Photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)

Matt Brown is a deputy managing editor for The Athletic College Football. He previously spent six years as an editor and the lead national college football and basketball writer for Sports on Earth. Follow Matt on Twitter @MattBrownCFB