The first AP College Football Top 25 Poll of the 2026 season dropped on Monday, August 17. These differ from the USA Today Coaches Poll since this poll is voted on by writers and not coaches. As with the Coaches Poll,

Ohio State and Oregon lead the AP Top 25 preseason college football rankings, followed by Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas. The SEC leads conferences with nine ranked teams.

College football's preseason AP Top 25 poll released on Aug. 17. How does it compare to the US LBM Coaches Poll? We point out notable differences:

The first Associated Press top 25 poll of the 2026 season was unveiled Monday afternoon.

On3’s Brett McMurphy recently analyzed preseason and postseason Associated Press polls since 2014 and found that the Cougars were the nation’s No. 1 underrated preseason team in that time span

The 2026 college football season is almost here, and the first AP Poll has officially been unveiled with the release of the preseason top-25 rankings. The rankings will continue to shift throughout the year based on each team’s performance,

Another major college football preseason poll has Michigan sitting just outside the top 15. The Associated Press Top 25 poll was released Monday afternoon, and the Wolverines checked in at No. 16 – the same spot they landed on the first US LBM coaches’ poll earlier this month.