College football rankings: Texas, Georgia, Miami lead way-too-early top 25 ahead of 2025 season

Looking ahead to the top teams entering the 2025 college football season

Jan 21, 2025

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12:36 am ET

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9 min read

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Welcome to the year of Arch and Gunner and Carson … and some other bits of madness as we ease into Year 2 of the 12-team College Football Playoff era in the 2025 season. In the way-too-early top 25, you shouldn’t need formal introductions. We are referring to the stars of tomorrow, today.

Arch Manning (finally) takes over at quarterback for Texas as the Longhorns sit as out preseason No. 1 (for now). Georgia is just fine with Gunner Stockton, the backup turned starter who reminds a lot of folks of two-time national champion Stetson Bennett. Speaking of former Georgia quarterbacks, Carson Beck takes his talents to Miami thanks to a boatload of NIL money.

What, you expected this to be all about on-field topics? Any discussion of the game these days has to involve roster transition. Every team in these rankings has had to remake itself in some form or another — in a hurry. 

For now, be very excited about the likes of the Longhorns, Bulldogs, Buckeyes, Nittany Lions, Ducks and Tigers running it back to the playoff in 2025. 

The SEC will try to break a streak of missing out on the CFP National Championship in two consecutive seasons. The Big Ten, meanwhile, will try to continue its rise to the top of the food chain in the sport. 

In this climate, though, nothing lasts forever, or even a few minutes. As we look ahead to the 2025 season, we’re riding with the Longhorns as the top team in the sport. They’ve proven worthy of participating in the playoff, and now it has the chops to win it all. 

Disclaimer: We mean way too early. These rankings do not account for obvious roster changes via the portal in the spring that could be significant. 

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