Georgia is number one Associated Press Top 25 The Super Conference Era marked the second straight year in the postseason college football poll with the SEC and Big Ten dominating the top 10 spots in the rankings.
The Bulldogs received 46 first-place votes and 1,532 points in the top 25 released Monday and finished comfortably ahead of SEC powerhouse Big Ten No. 2 Ohio State (15 first-place votes and 1,490 points).
New Big Ten member Oregon is No. 3, receiving one first-place vote from a panel of 62 media members covering college football. Texas is tied for fourth in the Southeastern Conference this season, tied with Georgia.
The Big Ten and SEC have four teams each in the top 10.
Conference realignment has reduced the Power Five to the Power Four, while the Pac-12 has been reduced to two schools. The Big Ten now consists of 18 schools. The Atlantic Coast Conference has 17 football teams, and the SEC and Big 12 have 16 each.
All motion is generated A season poll like never before Only four conferences are represented: the SEC leads the way with nine ranked teams. The Big Ten has six, the Big 12 has five and the ACC has four.
Alabama, in its first season without coach Nick Saban since 2006, is ranked No. 5 starts. No. 6 Mississippi gives the SEC its first preseason top six.
Independent Notre Dame is the highest-ranked team from outside the SEC and No. 7 in the Big Ten.
No. 8 Penn State and no. 9 Michigan gives The Big Ten is four to 10 teams. Florida State from the ACC is ranked No. 10 is
Title Game Finalists
The defending national champion Wolverines said goodbye to coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback JJ McCarthy and 12 players selected in April’s NFL draft. The departure of Cam Newton led Michigan to its lowest preseason ranking for a national champion since 2011, when Auburn was No. 23.
Before that, Colorado was last ranked 13th in 1991.
Losing the College Football Playoff championship to Michigan, Washington suffered an even bigger slump after losing its head coach (Calen DeBoer replaced Saban at Alabama), a star quarterback and a mountain of talent to the draft and draft portal. Since finishing the previous season No. 2 in the AP poll since Army in 1951, the Huskies were the first team to reach the CFP and be unranked the following season. It was in the top 20 of the rankings then.
Minnesota was the only team in 1961 to finish No. 1 and start the next season unranked, but the only team in the top 10 of the AP poll.
The first rank is ‘Docs
Georgia started last season at No. 1 in pursuit of its third straight national championship. Coach Kirby Smarts’ Bulldogs stayed there for the rest of the regular season, then lost the SEC title game to Alabama and missed the four-team playoff game.
“We’re dealing with new challenges this year,” Smart said at SEC media days. “We don’t have a chip on our shoulder and people try to use that as motivation. I’ve never used last year’s loss as motivation, I’ve never used last year’s success as motivation; we won’t do that this year. That’s not who we are. We want to rebuild ourselves to put ourselves in the best possible light.”
There is a lot of room for error with the playoffs this season Expanding from four to 12 teams.
The Bulldogs are 42-2 over the past three seasons and are reloading. Quarterback Carson Beck leads the offense and edge rusher Michael Williams should be the next defensive star at Georgia.
Beck is a rarity in college football these days, a star quarterback in his fifth season at the same school where he waited three years to become a starter. Beck completed 72% of his passes last year with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions.
“He’s a great big man for us and a great example of resilience in college football,” Smart said.
Coming back as preseason No. 1 is a recent trend. Going back eight seasons, Alabama had three (2016-18) and two (2021-22) years of preseason no. 1 was separate. Clemson was ranked No. 1 in the 2019 and ’20 preseason rankings.
Georgia will attempt to become the 12th team to start No. 1 and finish No. 1 in the AP preseason poll since its inception in 1950. The last time was Alabama in 2017.
___
Follow on Ralph D. Russo https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up Here. AP College Football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll And https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
