For the second consecutive season, Georgia is No. 1 in the preseason AP Poll. Several familiar faces join the Bulldogs in the top 25, including three of the four College Football Playoff teams from last season in the top 10. 

The Bulldogs are joined in the top five by No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon, No. 4 Texas and No. 5 Alabama. Rounding out the top 10 are No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 8 Penn State, No. 9 Michigan and No. 10 Florida State. 

Here’s the complete preseason AP Top 25 poll.

Preseason AP Top 25 Poll rankings

Others 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.

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Most Weeks Ranked No. 1

Here are the 10 FBS programs that have spent the most weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP poll since 1936, according to www.collegepollarchive.com.

Florida (41), Michigan (38) and LSU (36) sit just outside the top 10. 

SCOREBOARD: See scores and stats from every college football game

AP Poll ranking by conference

The SEC and Big Ten lead all conferences with four top-10 teams each. Here’s a breakdown of the entire top 25 by conference:

Breaking down the preseason poll

Georgia returns to the number one spot after Heisman candidate quarterback Carson Beck opted to stay for his final season. Reigning national champion Michigan dropped to the No. 9 spot after losing 13 players to the NFL draft. Three of the four CFP teams remained in the top 10, with Texas (No. 4) and Alabama (No. 5) returning their own Heisman candidate quarterbacks in Quinn Ewers and Jalen Milroe. 

No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Oregon are starting fresh under center, with Kansas State transfer Will Howard taking over for the Buckeyes and Oklahoma transfer Dillon Gabriel for the Ducks. Under the new conference realignments, the top 10 consists of four SEC and four Big Ten representatives, with independent Notre Dame and ACC’s Florida State filling the final two spots. 

HEISMAN: Every Heisman winner and runner-up since 1935 | Colleges with the most Heisman winners

Washington, the CFP runner-up, dropped outside of the top 25 to start the season following the loss of Heisman finalist Michael Penix Jr. to the NFL draft and the departure of head coach Kalen DeBoer to Tuscaloosa. The top-ranked ACC team, Florida State, found its replacement for Jordan Travis in former Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei. 

Notre Dame, the only team in the top 25 that is not a member of one of the new big four conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12), will start its season with Duke transfer Riley Leonard commanding the offense. Entering the 2024 season, 12 of the top 25 teams are projected to be starting new quarterbacks– including four in the top 10. 

Nonconference and early-ranked matchups to watch

In a stacked Week 1 slate, No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 14 Clemson will be the game to watch as the top-ranked SEC and second-ranked ACC team face off at noon in a neutral site game that will almost certainly have College Football Playoff implications down the road. 

Here are some other games to watch featuring top 25 teams:

As for other key matchups, College GameDay goes international for the first time as No. 10 Florida State will take on Georgia Tech at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. This is the third consecutive season a Week 0 game will be played in Ireland. The next Saturday, the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions will travel to Morgantown to take on West Virginia in a tough first matchup for Penn State. 

The College GameDay bus will make its way back across the pond for the anticipated Week 1 matchup between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 20 Texas A&M. Big Ten newcomer Southern Cal will wrap up Week 1 against LSU in a Sunday night neutral-site affair, kicking off the season in Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. 

BIG GAMES: 20 non-conference games to have on your radar heading into the 2024 season

Here’s how the 2023 preseason poll turned out

Here’s how the teams ranked in the 2023 preseason AP Top 25 finished last season. Click or tap here for more on how the preseason AP poll predicts the College Football Playoff teams.