College Football AP Top 25 preseason poll winners and losers

The college football AP Top 25 preseason poll was released on Monday and here’s a look at the winners and losers. 

The college football coaches poll was released last week, but the AP Poll has always held more weight in college football, especially in recent years.

So the AP Top 25 preseason poll getting released is always news. It doesn’t impact the national title race directly but it does shape public opinion heading into the season.

The AP Poll does crown its own college football national champion too and sets the stage for the college football pecking order since the College Football Playoff selection committee won’t put out a poll until much later in the season.

With that in mind, here are the winners and losers from the 2023 AP Top 25 preseason poll.

2023 College Football AP Poll Preseason Top 25 winners

• Georgia — Despite losing a bunch of dudes to the NFL and having to replace its starting quarterback, Stetson Bennett, the Bulldogs still commanded respect from the AP Poll voters and cemented their status again as favorites to pull off an unprecedented 3-peat.
• Michigan — The Wolverines have established themselves as the top team in the Big Ten and that was reflected in their ranking ahead of Ohio State. The Buckeyes probably have more talent on paper, but Michigan has proven that its back to being a blue blood. The voters see it too.
• Kansas State — The Wildcats are the defending Big 12 champs and have a really good shot of repeating. However, all of the talk about is Oklahoma, Texas, and even TCU. The AP Poll gave Kansas State the proper respect, ranking K-State ahead of Oklahoma and TCU. The voters couldn’t help but rank Texas higher, but still, it was good to see the Cats get their due.
• Tulane — The Green Wave probably think they should be ranked higher in the Preseason AP Poll and maybe they should fresh off a Cotton Bowl win and American Conference championship. Michael Pratt returns and ranking in the Top 25 at the start of the season could help them reach the New Year’s Six once again, as long as they repeat as American champions. Perception means a lot and the Green Wave appear to be the best team in the Group of Five.

AP Poll losers after preseason release

• Wisconsin/Luke Fickell — It’s nice to be ranked in the AP Poll. But the expectations are going to be high for Fickell at Wisconsin as he takes on his first season as a head coach in the college football Power-5. The Big Ten is different from the American. He knows that, but Wisconsin is expected to win the Big Ten West and that’s a lot to live up to in the first season on the job.
• Ohio State fans — Regardless of the past two years, Buckeye fans will be livid that Ohio State is ranked behind Michigan. Alabama fans might be too.
• Pac-12/ACC/Big 12 — It’s the final year of the Pac-12, at least in its current form and the AP Poll didn’t rank a single Pac-12 team in the top five. The ACC is in the same boat. Both leagues have multiple teams in the top 10 and three in the top 21, but the fact that the top five is dominated by the SEC and Big Ten is a reminder of where college football is headed. Six of the top 10 teams overall are from those two leagues. It could be worse though. The Big 12 has four teams in the Top 25, but not one in the top 10. That’s why it feels like Big 2 and then everybody else.