Experts React to Coaches Poll Top 25 for 2025 Preseason NCAA Football Rankings

The Texas Longhorns will start the 2025 college football season on top of the Coaches Poll.

Texas is the preseason No. 1 in the Coaches Poll for the first time in program history.

The Longhorns are directly ahead of their first regular-season opponent, the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Ohio State, the reigning College Football Playoff champion, checks in at No. 2 ahead of its August 30 showdown at Ohio Stadium with the Longhorns.

The Penn State Nittany Lions sit at No. 3. They will likely be the No. 2 team in the country by Week 2 because the Texas-Ohio State loser should drop a spot or two at minimum.

Most of the opening weekend attention will be paid to Texas-Ohio State, but there will be two other top-10 matchups in Week 1.

The Big Ten, SEC and ACC all had multiple teams land in the preseason top 10. The Big 12 was left out and its highest program sits at No. 11. The Arizona State Sun Devils are the only Big 12 team in the top 19.

A total of nine SEC programs and six Big Ten schools made the Top 25. The Big 12 has five programs in the rankings, while the ACC has three. Independent Notre Dame and Boise State from the Mountain West are the only non-power four representatives.