While there’s been plenty of madness throughout the college football offseason, the 2023 season is nearly here, and that means it’s time for preseason polls. Now, college football preseason anything doesn’t mean a whole lot by November, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise.
But it’s still not stopping us from seeing where teams landed in the 2023 preseason USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll, which was released Monday.
Unsurprisingly, defending national champion Georgia is comfortably at the top with 61 first-place votes, while Michigan, Alabama and Ohio State, respectively, rounded out the top-4 teams. Aside from Georgia, the only teams to receive first-place votes were Alabama (four) and Ohio State (one).
Some notable snubs from the preseason coaches poll include Kentucky, UCLA, Iowa and Pitt.
Wondering how this poll works? The USA TODAY Sports AFCA Board of Coaches consists of 63 FBS head coaches, and each one submits their top-25 teams through a points system with a first-place vote for 25 points, a second-place vote for 24 points, and so on. As USA TODAY Sports notes: “The panel is chosen by random draw, conference by conference plus independents, from a pool of coaches who have indicated to the American Football Coaches Association their willingness to participate.”
Here’s a look at the top-25 teams in the 2023 preseason USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll.