NCAA Football Top 25 Preseason Poll

While the professional sports leagues don’t see much change from season to season given the fact that players are signed to contracts, amongst other reasons, college athletics is a completely different beast. One year a program could perform very well and the next horribly, often because they lose personnel to the professional leagues and are forced to replace them just a year after they arrived on campus. This is especially true when it comes to NCAA Football, with college scouts fighting tooth and nail to secure the country’s best prospects and build a formidable team that can compete with the most elite of NCAA Football programs. This week AP released their Top 25 Preseason Poll which ranks the best NCAA Football programs based upon the rosters said programs have assembled, and features some interesting teams alongside the NCAA’s most elite football programs.

As expected, the top of AP’s list is filled with the most dominant NCAA Football teams of the past few years. In order, the top 5 goes: Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Clemson and Notre Dame. This marks Alabama’s 9th time being ranked first overall which is a remarkable feat to say the least, albeit not that surprising given it’s Alabama, but after those five teams we start to see some teams you wouldn’t expect to see or see at the rank they. Take the next team on the list, 6th ranked Texas A&M: Texas A&M posted a respectable 8-4 last season with two massive upsets when they beat then 13th ranked Auburn and then #1 ranked Alabama but were much closer to the bottom of the rankings at the end of that season, however it appears they’ve acquired enough talent to make them a top 10 team this year. The middle of the list is filled with programs you’d expect such as 8th ranked Michigan, 10th ranked Baylor and 16th ranked Miami, but if you scroll to number 20 you’ll see a surprising name: Kentucky. Kentucky Basketball coach John Calipari came out himself this week and said that Kentucky is a basketball school first and foremost, but when the Kentucky Football players heard his statements they were quick to respond and, per the AP rankings, it looks like they may be right. A lot can happen over the course of a season though, and only time can tell who the #1 NCAA Football program this year.

College football fans are equally as passionate as NFL fans if not more, and the AP poll is like the bible to them. While their favorite team may have appeared on AP’s list this time around though, a lot can change in just a few short months once the NCAA Football season is fully underway. Will Alabama dominate their competition once again, or can a school like Ohio State, Clemson or even an underdog like Texas A&M make enough noise to stop them in their tracks? Looks like we'll just have to wait until September 1st when the 2022 NCAA Football season kicks off.