B/R's 2025 Preseason College Football Top 25 Rankings

The road to the 2025 College Football Playoff has arrived.

The campaign is set to kick off with a Big 12 clash in Dublin, and Bleacher Report is gearing up for another year of our Top 25.

You're going to love it. Unless, of course, we ranked your favorite team too low—or maybe even not at all. The horror!

Jokes aside, the college football crew is excited to bring you a weekly Top 25 throughout the 2025 season.

Our familiar cast of characters—David Kenyon, Adam Kramer, Joel Reuter and Brad Shepard—each submitted a ballot. A first-place vote was worth 25 points, 24 for second place and so on.

1. Texas
2. Clemson
3. Penn State
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. Alabama
7. Oregon
8. LSU
9. Arizona State
10. South Carolina
11. Notre Dame
12. Miami
13. Illinois
14. Kansas State
15. Michigan
16. SMU
17. Tennessee
18. Florida
19. Louisville
20. Iowa State
21. Oklahoma
22. Ole Miss
23. Texas A&M
24. Indiana
25. Texas Tech

...the Louisville Cardinals.

Checking in, well, technically 29th in the AP Top 25, the ACC program has soared to 19th in Bleacher Report's initial poll.

The simple question: Why?

Their schedule opens with Eastern Kentucky, James Madison, Bowling Green, Pitt and Virginia. JMU is a strong Group of Five opponent, and playing at Pitt is rarely easy. But that's not exactly a gauntlet, and UL could be 5-0 entering the tougher part of its slate.

It does get challenging, though. There are trips to Miami and Virginia Tech before a back-to-back stretch in November; home to Clemson and at SMU.

But we watched the 2023 team upset No. 10 Notre Dame, thrash No. 20 Duke and reach the ACC Championship Game. We saw the 2024 group compete with ND and Miami before upsetting Clemson on the road. Louisville has 19 wins during Jeff Brohm's two seasons at his alma mater.

Doubt the Cards at your own risk.

...the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Now, let's keep a No. 11 ranking in perspective. That would mean, if you project that as ND's finishing spot, the program is still viewed as a CFP qualifier by the B/R staff. It's not like the Irish are listed 23rd or something.

But that's a pretty noticeable difference after the AP Top 25 placed Marcus Freeman's team at sixth in the country, for sure.

The double-edged sword of the schedule is the reigning national runner-up has a chance to prove itself—or not—in a hurry. Notre Dame travels to Miami for a season-opening showdown on Labor Day Sunday, then has an extra week to prepare a home clash against Texas A&M.

Win both, and the Irish are in excellent shape to compete for a title. Split the games, and expectations for playoff contention remain unchanged.

Lose both? That's a different story.

Compared to the AP poll, the B/R Top 25 dropped both Notre Dame and Miami out of the Top 10. The largest rise belongs to the South Carolina Gamecocks.

There's no doubt it's a bold outcome.

By the end of September, the Gamecocks will have faced Virginia Tech (in Atlanta), South Carolina State, Vanderbilt, Missouri (on the road) and Kentucky. Again, not a breeze, but certainly not a nightmare.

No, that comes later.

October begins with an idle weekend, then South Carolina travels to LSU, hosts Oklahoma, hosts Alabama and travels to Ole Miss on consecutive Saturdays. After another off weekend, the Gamecocks travel to Texas A&M and host rival Clemson to close the season—with Coastal Carolina sandwiched between.

If you're keeping track, that would be six preseason ranked teams—whether you're looking at the AP or B/R Top 25—in the last seven matchups.

LaNorris Sellers is a dynamic quarterback, Dylan Stewart is a rising star at edge-rusher, and head coach Shane Beamer has pocketed five Top-25 victories in his short tenure. South Carolina has earned the optimism.

This is, nevertheless, a mountain of respect for a team facing a gauntlet.