2025 Preseason Consensus

This is a preliminary version. More magazines will be added as they are found.

See the "notes" file for information on the preseason consensus.

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If you are having trouble locating a magazine that you want, the link in the column header goes to the publisher's web site.

Conference changes for 2025:

Texas State joined the Pac-12

Louisiana Tech joined the Sun Belt

Delaware moved up from FCS to join Conference USA

Missouri State moved up from FCS to join Conference USA

UMass rejoined the MAC

Jump to:

National rankings
American Athletic Conference Predictions
Atlantic Coast Conference Predictions
Big Ten Conference Predictions
Big XII Conference Predictions
Conference USA Predictions
Mid-American Conference Predictions
Mountain West Conference Predictions
Southeastern Conference Predictions
Sun Belt Conference Predictions

National Top 25

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Penn State	116	2	2	3	1
2	Texas	113	1	1	5	4
3	Ohio State	112	3	3	1	5
4	Clemson	105	4	5	8	2
5	Notre Dame	103	6	6	6	3
6	Georgia	101	9	4	4	6
7	Alabama	99	8	8	2	7
8	Oregon	93	7	9	7	8
9	Louisiana State	92	5	7	9	11
10	Miami-Florida	77	11	10	12	14
11	Michigan	73	16	15	10	10
12	Florida	67	15	11	14	17
13	SMU	56	12	24	20	12
14	Illinois	55	17	17	19	16
15t	Arizona State	51	14	14	22	23
15t	South Carolina	51	13	12	17	-
15t	South Carolina	51	13	12	17	-
17	Kansas State	49	20	13	18	24
18	Oklahoma	48	-	20	16	9
19	Mississippi	45	19	18	11	-
20t	Boise State	40	-	25	13	15
20t	Texas A&M	40	-	19	15	19
22	Indiana	34	-	16	23	20
23	Iowa State	27	22	23	-	21
24	Baylor	24	25	-	-	13
25	Texas Tech	22	18	22	-	-

Others receiving votes:

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
26	Louisville	15	23	-	24	-
27	Utah	13	-	-	-	18
28t	Brigham Young	10	21	-	-	-
28t	Missouri	10	-	-	21	-
28t	Tennessee	10	-	21	-	-
31	Southern Cal	9	-	-	-	22
32	Nebraska	7	24	-	-	-
33t	Auburn	6	-	-	25	-
33t	Toledo	6	-	-	-	25
-	unranked	0	-	-	-	-

Conference predictions

American Athletic

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Tulane	7	2	1	1	3
2	Navy	11	1	2	3	5
3	Memphis	12	3	6	2	1
4	UTSA	16	6	4	4	2
5	South Florida	18	5	3	5	5
6	Army	21	4	5	7	5
7	East Carolina	28	7	7	6	8
8	North Texas	33	9	8	9	7
9	Florida Atlantic	37	10	9	8	10
10	UAB	41	8	12	11	10
11	Rice	44	11	13	10	10
12	Temple	47½	12	10	13	12½
13	Charlotte	48½	13	11	12	12½
14	Tulsa	56	14	14	14	14

Atlantic Coast

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Clemson	5	1	1	2	1
2	Miami-Florida	7½	2	2	1	2½
3	SMU	19	3	3	3	10
4	Georgia Tech	21½	7	5	5	4½
5	Louisville	22	5	4	6	7
6	Florida State	27½	4	7	12	4½
7	North Carolina	33	10	9	7	7
8	Duke	34	8	6	10	10
9	Pittsburgh	35	6	8	14	7
10	Virginia Tech	37	12	11	4	10
11	N.C. State	42	11	10	11	10
12	Virginia	50	15	14	8	13
13	Boston College	51	13	12	13	13
14	Syracuse	52	9	13	17	13
15	California	56	17	15	9	15
16	Wake Forest	62	14	16	16	16
17	Stanford	65	16	17	15	17

Big Ten

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Penn State	5	1	1	2	1
2	Ohio State	7	2	2	1	2
3	Oregon	12	3	3	3	3
4	Michigan	16	4	4	4	4
5	Nebraska	26½	6	8	6	6½
6t	Illinois	27½	5	6	10	6½
6t	Indiana	27½	9	5	7	6½
6t	Southern Cal	27½	7	9	5	6½
9	Iowa	36	10	7	11	8
10	Washington	36½	8	10	8	10½
11	Minnesota	41½	11	11	9	10½
12	Wisconsin	51	12	13	14	12
13	Rutgers	54	16	12	13	13
14	UCLA	57½	13	15	15	14½
15	Michigan State	58½	14	14	16	14½
16	Maryland	60½	15	17	12	16½
17	Northwestern	66½	17	16	17	16½
18	Purdue	72	18	18	18	18

Big XII

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1t	Arizona State	10	1	2	2	5
1t	Kansas State	10	3	1	1	5
3	Texas Tech	15	2	3	5	5
4t	Baylor	20	6	5	7	2
4t	Iowa State	20	5	4	9	2
6	Brigham Young	20½	4	6	3	7½
7	Utah	29	9	7	11	2
8t	Kansas	29½	8	8	4	9½
8t	Texas Christian	29½	7	9	6	7½
10t	Cincinnati	44½	11	12	12	9½
10t	Colorado	44½	12	10	10	12½
12	Houston	48	10	11	16	11
13	Central Florida	49½	13	16	8	12½
14	Oklahoma State	56	16	13	13	14
15	West Virginia	58	14	14	14	16
16	Arizona	60	15	15	15	15

Conference USA

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Liberty	4	1	1	1	1
2	Western Kentucky	10	3	2	2	3
3	Jacksonville St.	18½	5	3	3	7½
4	Louisiana Tech	23	10	6	5	2
5	Sam Houston	25	2	7	7	9
6	Texas-El Paso	26½	8	4	9	5½
7	Middle Tennessee	28	4	8	12	4
8t	Florida Int'l	32½	12	9	4	7½
8t	New Mexico State	32½	6	11	10	5½
10	Missouri State	34	7	10	6	11
11	Delaware	35	11	5	8	11
12	Kennesaw State	43	9	12	11	11

Mid-American

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Toledo	4½	1	1	1	1½
2	Miami-Ohio	13	4	3	2	4
3	Ohio	14	3	4	4	3
4	Buffalo	14½	2	2	9	1½
5	Northern Illinois	20	7	5	3	5
6	Central Michigan	28½	5	6	10	7½
7	Bowling Green	29	11	7	5	6
8	Western Michigan	30	6	8	7	9
9	Akron	35	9	10	6	10
10	Eastern Michigan	35½	8	9	11	7½
11t	Ball State	44	10	11	12	11
11t	UMass	44	12	12	8	12
13	Kent State	52	13	13	13	13

Mountain West

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Boise State	5	1	1	2	1
2	Nevada-Las Vegas	9	3	2	1	3
3	San Jose State	10	2	3	3	2
4	Colorado State	20	5	5	5	5
5	Fresno State	21	6	4	4	7
6	Air Force	24	4	6	10	4
7	Hawaii	27	7	7	6	7
8	San Diego State	35	11	8	9	7
9	Utah State	38	9	10	8	11
10	Wyoming	39	10	9	11	9
11t	Nevada	42	8	11	12	11
11t	New Mexico	42	12	12	7	11

Southeastern

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
1	Texas	5	1	1	1	2
2	Georgia	9	4	2	2	1
3	Alabama	13	3	4	3	3
4	Louisiana State	17	2	3	7	5
5	Mississippi	28	8	7	5	8
6	Oklahoma	29	5	9	10	5
7	Texas A&M	31	12	8	6	5
8	South Carolina	31½	6	6	9	10½
9	Florida	32	7	5	12	8
10	Tennessee	33	11	10	4	8
11	Auburn	38½	9	11	8	10½
12	Missouri	45½	10	12	11	12½
13	Arkansas	51½	13	13	13	12½
14	Vanderbilt	57	14	14	15	14
15	Kentucky	59	15	15	14	15
16	Mississippi State	64	16	16	16	16

Sun Belt

Rank	Team	Total Points	Lindy	Athlon	ESPN FPI	Phil Steele
East
1	James Madison	5	1	1	2	1
2	Georgia Southern	7	2	2	1	2
3	Old Dominion	14	4	3	4	3
4	Appalachian State	17	3	5	5	4
5	Coastal Carolina	21	5	4	7	5
6	Marshall	23	7	6	3	7
7	Georgia State	25	6	7	6	6
West
1	Texas State	6½	2	1	2	1½
2	Louisiana-Lafay.	8½	4	2	1	1½
3	South Alabama	13	3	3	3	4
4	Arkansas State	16	1	4	5	6
5	Troy	19	5	6	4	4
6	Southern Miss	21	6	5	6	4
7	Louisiana-Monroe	28	7	7	7	7