One of the final benchmarks of the offseason has been reached — the AP Top 25 preseason poll is out.
The poll was released on Monday morning and includes several SEC teams in the top 10. Georgia and Texas led the way for the SEC at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.
The Longhorns are highly-ranked once again after starting the 2025 campaign as the No. 1 team in the country. They ultimately lost to Ohio State in Week 1 and went on to go 9-3, missing the College Football Playoff.
Georgia had a strong regular season and won the SEC Championship for the second consecutive season. However, the Bulldogs were one-and-done in the College Football Playoff and will be hoping to make a deeper run in 2026-27.
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Ohio State claimed the No. 1 spot, followed closely by Big Ten rival Oregon at No. 2. Notre Dame earned the final top-5 placement at No. 4 while last year’s champ, Indiana, settled for No. 6.
Elsewhere in the SEC, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, LSU and Alabama are all ranked in the top 15 to start the season. Here’s what the full top 25 looks like with all 9 SEC teams highlighted:
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Notre Dame
- Texas
- Indiana
- Miami
- Texas A&M
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Texas Tech
- Alabama
- BYU
- USC
- Michigan
- Washington
- Penn State
- SMU
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Iowa
- Houston
- Louisville
- Mizzou
Clemson and Florida received the next-highest number of votes but just missed out on inclusion in the preseason poll.
Week 1 of the 2026 college football season is set for the weekend of Sept. 5.
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Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
