Composite college football early top 25 rankings for 2023: Georgia at No. 1, Michigan at No. 2

Bill Bender

Composite college football early top 25 rankings for 2023: Georgia at No. 1, Michigan at No. 2 image

Georgia is No. 1 and will head into the 2023 college football season in the top spot in most preseason Way-Too-Early Top 25 lists. 

We looked across 10 leading publications to prove it. The Bulldogs were No. 1 across all 10 sites, but the surprises started at No. 2. Michigan is the consensus No. 2 ahead of Alabama and Ohio State. The Wolverines and Crimson Tide were ranked No. 2 by four sites apiece. The Buckeyes were ranked No. 2 by one site. 

The rest of the list gives you a good idea of the baseline for the preseason polls heading into the 2023 season. Sporting News has its Way Too Early Top 25, but we also looked at 247Sports, Action Network, Athlon, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Yahoo Sports

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.

Composite top 25 preseason college football rankings

A look at a composite Way Too Early Top 25 college football ranking across 10 major websites. Here is each school with the total points scored and their high and low ranking: 

RANK SCHOOL TOTAL HIGH LOW
1 Georgia 250 1 1
2 Michigan 234 2 3
3 Alabama 224 2 7
4 Ohio State 222 2 6
5 Penn State 195 4 9
6 LSU 194 3 12
7 USC 180 5 13
8 Florida State 179 4 14
9 Washington 172 5 11
10 Oregon 153 8 13
11 Notre Dame 145 7 14
12 TCU 142 6 17
13 Tennessee 140 5 16
14 Clemson 138 9 15
15 Utah 112 12 18
16 Oregon State 94 13 20
17 Texas 84 14 NR
18 Kansas State 78 17 20
19 Tulane 62 12 25
20 North Carolina 50 16 NR
21 Texas Tech 39 18 NR
22 South Carolina 25 19 NR
23 UCLA 23 19 NR
24 Ole Miss 21 20 NR
25 (T) Wisconsin 19 19 NR
25 (T) Oklahoma 19 20 NR

Other receiving votes: UTSA (15), Texas A&M (10), Iowa (10), Louisville (6), Troy (5), Pitt (4), Arkansas (3), James Madison (2), NC State (1) 

Composite Top 25 rankings by site

A look at a composite Way Too Early Top 25 college football ranking across 10 major websites. Here is where each site ranked their top 25: 

SCHOOL SN B/R ESPN CBS SI T/A 247 Y! ATH ACT
Georgia 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Alabama 2 2 5 4 7 5 2 2 5 2
Michigan 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 3
Ohio State 4 4 2 3 6 3 4 4 3 5
Tennessee 5 14 10 16 12 14 12 10 9 18
LSU 6 12 8 8 3 4 7 5 7 6
USC 7 5 7 13 8 7 8 6 4 15
TCU 8 17 12 6 9 10 15 15 15 11
Penn State 9 6 6 7 4 6 5 7 8 7
Washington 10 10 11 5 5 9 9 11 10 8
Oregon 11 11 9 11 13 13 10 8 11 10
Florida State 12 8 4 14 10 8 6 9 6 4
Notre Dame 13 7 14 10 11 11 13 12 12 12
Clemson 14 9 15 9 14 15 11 13 13 9
Utah 15 13 13 18 15 12 16 14 16 16
Oregon State 16 16 17 15 20 16 18 18 17 13
Kansas State 17 18 18 19 18 17 17 17 20 21
Texas Tech 18 - 23 - - 21 20 21 - 14
Wisconsin 19 - - - 23 19 - - 24 -
Texas 20 15 16 17 21 - 14 16 14 17
Texas A&M 21 - - - - 25 22 - - -
North Carolina 22 20 21 20 16 20 - 23 19 23
Tulane 23 19 19 12 17 24 25 22 18 19
UTSA 24 24 22 24 24 23 - - - -
South Carolina 25 21 - 22 19 - 21 24 25 -
Troy - - - - 22 - - - - 25
UCLA - 23 - 23 25 - 19 19 - 24
Ole Miss - - 20 21 - 22 24 - 22 -
James Madison - - 24 - - - - - - -
Iowa - - 25 - - 18 - 25 - -
Oklahoma - 22 - 25 - - 23 20 21 -
Pitt - - - - - - - - - 22
Louisville - - - - - - - - - 20
NC State - 25 - - - - - - - -
Arkansas - - - - - - - - 23 -

 

Bill Bender

Bill Bender Photo

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.