Preseason College Football Rankings 2022: Predictions for Initial AP NCAA Top 25

The Alabama Crimson Tide are expected to start the 2022 college football season in a position that is all too familiar for the program.

They should be the No. 1 team in the preseason AP Top 25 that is released on Monday. That would give the Crimson Tide the top spots in both preseason polls.

Alabama returns the Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback in Bryce Young and the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft in linebacker Will Anderson.

As always, Nick Saban's team will have a ton of five-star prospects strewn across the field and is expected to be on top of the SEC and the national rankings for much of the season.

The usual national championship contenders of recent years will challenge Alabama for the top spot in most weeks.

The Ohio State Buckeyes return three of the most dynamic offensive players in college football: C.J. Stroud, TreVeyon Henderson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The Georgia Bulldogs will look to repeat as national champion with a revamped roster.

The middle and lower parts of the first AP Top 25 of the season may be more intriguing to some since Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia are at the top every year.

Some of the teams ranked from Nos. 15-25 carry promise into the new season, but some may need results before they can justify their high positions in the weekly polls.

---

AP Top 25 Prediction

1. Alabama

2. Ohio State

3. Georgia

4. Clemson

5. Michigan

6. Notre Dame

7. Texas A&M

8. Utah

9. Oklahoma

10. Oklahoma State

11. NC State

12. Baylor

13. Oregon

14. Michigan State

15. Miami

16. USC

17. Texas

18. Pittsburgh

19. Kentucky

20. Wake Forest

21. Wisconsin

22. Arkansas

23. Ole Miss

24. Houston

25. Cincinnati

---

Alabama topped the preseason Coaches Poll that was unveiled last week and it should find itself at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 on Monday afternoon.

The Crimson Tide should be the national title favorite with Bryce Young at quarterback. They will have a chance to back up their top ranking on September 10 in Austin, Texas against the Texas Longhorns.

The one difference we can assume between the AP Top 25 and Coaches polls is that Texas will not receive a first-place vote. The Longhorns were voted into 18th in the Coaches Poll, but they mysteriously received a first-place vote. Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia were the only other programs to earn top spots on the ballots.

Alabama has two Heisman Trophy candidates going into the season in Young and Will Anderson. Ohio State could say the same with Stroud and Smith-Njigba, but the votes for the quarterback-wide receiver duo may go to Stroud because he is the quarterback who gets the ball to his star wideout.

Young and Stroud should trade spots atop anyone's Heisman power rankings for most of the early season before the other candidates separate themselves from the field.

Ohio State even has a chance to take the No. 1 ranking away from Alabama if it beats the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Week 1.

Notre Dame has been in the College Football Playoff picture for a few years. but it may not live up to its preseason ranking.

The Fighting Irish will come into Ohio Stadium with a first-year head coach, a new starting quarterback and a new starting running back. But they will be without wide receiver Avery Davis, who tore his ACL in training camp.

Georgia has a chance to prove its worth in Week 1 as well against the Oregon Ducks, which are coached by former Bulldogs defensive coordinator Dan Lanning.

The Alabama-Texas, Ohio State-Notre Dame and Georgia-Oregon games could render the preseason rankings useless, or it could reaffirm the top three contenders in the first two weeks of the season.

The other voting storyline to watch in the AP poll is where the Wake Forest Demon Deacons land. They are 19th in the coaches poll, but that ranking happened before quarterback Sam Hartman was ruled out indefinitely.

The 23-year-old's status may not change some votes because Wake Forest begins the season with three seemingly straightforward games, but it may stop it from getting close to the top 15.

The order in the bottom half of the preseason rankings will be interesting to see just so we can gauge where the media thinks some teams with potential sit going into the season.

Kentucky may be the most curious case of those teams. It returns quarterback Will Levis and should be the second-best team in the SEC East. Mark Stoops' team still has to go through Georgia to have a chance of challenging for the SEC crown, which is why its preseason ranking may be between 15 and 25 instead of another team with a ton of promise and returning players from another power conference.