Preseason AP Top 25 Poll, Rankings Prediction – Post-Coaches Poll Release

What will the 2021 preseason AP Poll potentially look like? It’s our predicted best guess on the early college football rankings – changed up after the preseason Coaches Poll was released.

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Before we get going, please note that below is NOT the actual 2021 Preseason AP Poll – it’s our prediction and projection of what it might be before its release on August 16th.

We did this a few weeks ago, but with the release of the 2021 Preseason USA TODAY Coaches Poll, we’ve tweaked it a bit – the AP and Coaches are usually relatively close to each other.

Throughout the year the AP rankings are a great indication of how the rest of college football – at least the media types – views what’s happening. They’re a terrific measuring stick, especially before the College Football Playoff rankings come out.

The AP Poll and Coaches Pool both had the same preseason top four rankings last year – Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia – and they both had Notre Dame No. 10 and Texas A&M 13. The only difference in the top 14 was 5/6 with the AP putting Oklahoma 5 and LSU 6, and the Coaches going the other way around.

In other words, the AP and Coaches are both about the same. This year, though, after a crazy 2020 with a whole lot of new teams in the mix, expect more changes and differences than ever.

Again, this is just a prediction and not the real preseason AP top 25 poll, so don’t get mad or too happy – we’re making the best educational guess possible on a projection. Once the 2021 preseason AP top 25 poll is released on August 16th, we’ll break it all down and do a deep dive analysis.

– 5 Things That Matter: 2021 Preseason USA TODAY Coaches Poll