Defending national champion Georgia leads the preseason polls

Georgia is starting the 2023 season where they left off.

The Bulldogs are No. 1 in the preseason AP poll ahead of Michigan and Ohio State. The Bulldogs received 60 of 63 first-place votes. Michigan got two and Ohio State got one.

All three teams participated in the College Football Playoff a season prior. Georgia beat Ohio State in the semifinals while TCU defeated Michigan. The Bulldogs then demolished TCU in the national title game to win back-to-back national titles. If Georgia wins the national title for the third straight season, the Bulldogs will be the first team since Minnesota in the 1930s to three-peat.

TCU was ranked 17th in the poll after losing several key contributors to offense from its team a year earlier.

Alabama and LSU round out the top five while USC is sixth and Penn State is seventh. Florida State is the ACC’s eighth-best team and Clemson is ninth, ahead of Washington.

Monday marks the first time Georgia has been ranked atop the AP Preseason Top 25 since 2008. Alabama was the preseason top team in 2022 with 54 first-place votes. This year, the Crimson Tide did not receive a single vote at the top of the poll.

The top 7 teams in the poll will be members of either the SEC or the Big Ten next season, and 10 of the top 12 teams in the poll are either current or future members of either league. The SEC and Big Ten each have three current members ranked in the top 10, the SEC has six ranked teams and the Big Ten has five.

There are five Pac-12 ranked teams as well as Utah in No. 14 and Oregon in the back. Oregon State—a team without much conference after Pac-12 teams move to the Big 12 and Big Ten next season—ranked 18th.

Preseason top 25 AP

1. Georgia

2. Michigan

3. Ohio State

4. Alabama

5. LSU

6. USC

7. Pennsylvania

8. Florida

9. Clemson

10. Washington

11. Texas

12. Tennessee

13. Our Lady

14. Utah

15. Oregon

16. Kansas State

17. TCU

18. Oregon

19. Wisconsin

20. Oklahoma

21. North Carolina

22. Be a beauty queen

23. Texas A&M

24. Tulane

25. Iowa