Composite college football early top 25 rankings for 2022: Alabama, Ohio State take top two spots

Bill Bender

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Composite college football early top 25 rankings for 2022: Alabama, Ohio State take top two spots image

Who is ready for 2022? 

Several national publications have put out Way Too Early Top 25 rankings for the 2022 college football season.

The consensus at the top has not changed. Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia are the top three choices and likely will be the front-runners for the 2022-23 College Football Playoff. 

Who else could make a run? Sporting News posted its Way Too Early Top 25, but we also took a look at other publications. We compiled a composite list using rankings from ESPN, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, Yahoo Sports, 247Sports, Action Network and Athlon. 

We used an inverse scoring method (awarding 25 points to a No. 1 selection, 24 for a No. 2 selection, all the way down to one point for a No. 25 selection) to determine the highest possible score for each school. 

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Here is what those rankings looked like:

Composite top 25 preseason college football rankings

RANK SCHOOL VOTES HIGH LOW
1 Alabama 225 1 1
2 Ohio State 213 2 3
3 Georgia 210 2 3
4 Texas A&M 188 4 6
5 Clemson 179 4 11
6 Notre Dame 170 5 12
7 Utah 164 4 13
8 Michigan 157 5 20
9 Baylor 135 6 16
10 Wake Forest 125 8 17
11 Oklahoma 119 4 25
12 Michigan State 110 9 NR
13 Oklahoma State 108 8 25
14 Oregon 104 9 20
15 Arkansas 94 10 20
16 NC State 69 8 NR
17 Wisconsin 64 6 NR
18 Iowa 59 11 NR
19 Tennessee 48 13 NR
20 USC 44 13 NR
21 Kentucky 42.5 12 NR
22 Cincinnati 40 14 NR
23 Houston 39 9 NR
24 BYU 38 14 NR
25 Miami 30 11 NR

Others receiving votes: LSU 29, Pitt 28, Penn State 24.5, Texas 23, Ole Miss 16, Minnesota 8, South Carolina 5, Florida 4, Fresno State 4, Coastal Carolina 2, Purdue 2, Kansas State 2, Air Force 2, Nebraska 1

MORE: The Alabama dynasty isn't going anywhere

Composite Top 25 rankings by site

SCHOOL SN ESPN CBS SI ATHLETIC 247 ATHLON YAHOO ACTION
Alabama 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Ohio State 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3
Georgia 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2
Clemson 4 11 9 4 8 6 4 4 5
Notre Dame 5 6 7 9 5 5 8 7 12
Texas A&M 6 4 5 6 6 4 6 5 4
Michigan 7 5 11 7 7 7 5 8 20
Baylor 8 16 6 12 12 10 11 11 13
Oregon 9 12 18 20 16 13 14 12 16
Utah 10 7 13 5 4 8 7 6 10
Wake Forest 11 14 17 8 15 11 15 9 9
Kentucky 12 21 NR 21 21 20T 22 24 23
Arkansas 13 20 10 14 17 17 18 16 15
Cincinnati 14 19 23 23 20 NR 20 23 NR
Michigan State 15 10 20 11 10 9 10 13 NR
Oklahoma 16 17 4 15 25 12 9 10 7
Iowa 17 15 NR 22 23 11 17 18 21
Oklahoma State 18 9 25 10 14 15 13 14 8
Ole Miss 19 23 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR
Texas 20 NR 16 NR NR 19 NR 20 NR
USC 21 22 14 13 NR 23 NR 19 NR
Florida 22 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR
LSU 23 NR 8 NR NR NR NR NR 18
Pitt 24 NR NR NR 11 NR 19 22 NR
Coastal Carolina 25 NR NR 25 NR NR NR NR NR
NC State NR 8 NR 19 9 18 16 17 NR
Houston NR 13 NR 18 22 22 25 25 9
BYU NR 18 21 NR NR 14 24 15 NR
Wisconsin NR 24 19 17 19 NR 12 21 6
South Carolina NR 25 22 NR NR NR NR NR NR
Miami, Fla NR NR 12 NR NR 25 NR NR 11
Tennesse NR NR 15 16 13 24 23 NR 17
Penn State NR NR 24 NR NR 20T 21 NR 14
Purdue NR NR NR 24 NR NR NR NR NR
Minnesota NR NR NR NR 18 NR NR NR NR
Kansas State NR NR NR NR 24 NR NR NR NR
Fresno State NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR 22
Air Force NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR 24
Nebraska NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR 25

Bill Bender

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Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.