8. Arizona State: The Sun Devils bring almost everyone back from a CFP quarterfinals run, and talented back Kanye Udoh replaces Cam Skattebo.

18. Utah: My pick for a big bounceback year, behind one of the best offensive lines in college football and New Mexico transfer QB Devon Dampier.

21. Kansas State: Quarterback Avery Johnson has playmakers around him, but a new offensive line will have to hold up.

24. Texas Tech: Will importing a highly ranked and very expensive transfer class full of linemen get the Red Raiders to the Big 12 title game for the first time?

27. Iowa State: QB Rocco Becht must find new favorite receivers, but the Cyclones return a ton from a team that reached the Big 12 title game.

28. Baylor: QB Sawyer Robertson and RB Bryson Washington could make this one of the best offenses in the Big 12.

32. BYU: The summer departure of QB Jake Retzlaff drops the Cougars from a Big 12 favorite to a step below that for now, but plenty of production returns.

35. TCU: QB Josh Hoover was very good last year, and if an experienced defense can take another step forward, TCU could be back in the Big 12 title picture.

36. Kansas: Can QB Jalon Daniels make it through a season healthy? The defense should be good, and Kansas needs to flip last year’s 1-5 record in one-score games.

51. Colorado: Losing Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders is obviously big, but Deion Sanders has built some depth in this program, and the defense took a big step forward a year ago.

67. Cincinnati: This should be coach Scott Satterfield’s most talented team, but there are no easy weeks in the Big 12.

68. Oklahoma State: I’m banking on a Mike Gundy turnaround, even though all the faces around him are new.

69. West Virginia: Rich Rodriguez has a deep group of running backs for his offense, but the line could be a major problem.

74. Houston: QB Conner Weigman must invigorate an offense to help a defense that is improving.

77. Arizona: Coach Brent Brennan overhauled both sides of the ball around returning QB Noah Fifita and believes he has a better plan for Year 2.

82. UCF: The defense could be solid, but the season will depend on who wins the quarterback job.

Now it’s time to get those ballots in as our new Top 25 for this week takes shape! Most everyone knows the drill by now. If you’ve never participated before and would like to, then we encourage you to join the group. Whether you have a computer poll that you run or it’s strictly an eye test, just give us the list of your top 25 teams as of right now.

CLICK HERE to cast your ballot. We’ll close the poll down tonight at 11pm (EST). PLEASE remember to not use today’s games when considering your rankings!

Also, if we have a question or a mistake we’d like to fix with your ballot, we may reach out to you via PM. We hope to get a timely response so we can correct any ballot and have it included. Thanks, as always, for the time and effort you all put in each week!

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.

Utah State (high 106, low 120) goes into their last year in the Mountain West as the 10th ranked team. They don't return a lot of production (ranked 124th, with very little coming back on the offensive side of the ball) with the 88th ranked 2025 recruiting class (4th in the MWC) and the 118th ranked transfer portal class (8th in the MWC) which translates into the 112th best overall incoming class, suggesting a stretch to improve on last year's 4-8 season, though the schedule, with 3 teams ranked below them plus FCS McNeese, suggests that record should be a floor, and Bronco Mendenhall should be an upgrade and provide stability after the firing of Blake Anderson.

Notes:

1. Results are based on conference and/or school websites through March 1, 2025

2. Click on the picture to see the entire list of standings (looks like ACC, Big Ten, and MAC are cut off on mobile)

3. ACC, Big Ten, EIWA, Ivy League, MAC, and SoCon standings updated via conference websites; Big 12 and Pac-12 standings created from results on individual schools’ websites. Some school and/or conference websites are updated faster than others

4. North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Virginia Tech finish in a 3-team tie for first - each team went 1-1 against the other two. Not sure if there are any further ACC tiebreakers or what they are if so

5. Campbell has tiebreaker over App State due to head-to-head result

6. Navy has tiebreaker over Lehigh due to head-to-head result

7. Central Michigan has tiebreaker over NIU due to head-to-head result

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.

IT’S JULY 23rd! WE’RE EXACTLY 1 MONTH FROM THE KICKOFF OF THE 2025 SEASON!!!

Baylor (high = 18, low = 37) comes in at #31 and the 6th highest ranked team in the Big XII. It seems impossible to believe that Dave Aranda is entering his 6th season in charge in Waco after posting an 8-5 record in 2024 that saw them drop a back breaking Hail Mary game to Colorado on a Shedeur Sanders Hail Mary, rattle off a 6 game win streak to end the season and then drop the Texas Bowl to LSU to wrap up just his second winning season in 5 years. Though his seat’s not exactly hot, it’s not exactly cold, either, and if 2025 isn’t successful the Bears might want to revisit Memphis’ $200MM offer to help defray Aranda’s buyout.

Roster outlook

Baylor returns the 11th most production in all of FBS, with top 25 classes on both sides of the ball. Sawyer Robertson and his 3,000 yards passing and 28 TDs is back at QB, as is 1,000 yard rusher Bryson Washington and Robertson’s two top receiving targets Josh Cameron and Ashtyn Hawkins. With that much coming back, Aranda focused more on the future, corralling the 3rd best recruiting class in the conference (37th nationally) and only adding a few key players via the portal (good for 9th in the Big XII) like Bama WR Kobe Prentice and a few defensive starters (Oregon LB Emar'rion Winston and Tulane edge Matthew Fobbs-White). Continuity will be key, and the Bears bring back both Jake Spavital as OC and Matt Powledge as DC.

Schedule and outlook

Things could really get spicy for Baylor right out of the gate. They open at home against Auburn, then go to ACC runner-up and CFP team SMU. Win both of those and the Bears are certain to be ranked going into their Big XII opener against defending champs Arizona State. But if things go south and they exit week 4 1-3, the rumblings on SicEm365 will be unbearable. The rest of the schedule has a number of games against teams projected at the bottom of the conference (at Oklahoma State, at Cincinnati, UCF, at Arizona and Houston) that Baylor’s almost assured of another winning season, but barely topping .500 will not likely satisfy the fanbase.

Hi all, i’m currently 20 I stopped cheering right after high school and really talked myself out of joining my college team for a while. This next season i’ll be a senior so i wanted to see what are my chances of making the team as a senior as i know they have their returners and tumbling requirements. I’m planning on going to an open gym until tryouts to see what I still have and perfect everything else, but only if I think there’s a chance for me since this is the last year😭😭 thanks in advanced!!

Well, it's been another great year here in the community. Congrats to the UConn Huskies, winning the National Championship yesterday in record fashion! Now, we cast our final ballots of the year and see how the Top 25 Poll ends out this season.

CLICK HERE to cast your ballot. We’ll close the poll down tomorrow at 11pm (EST). If we have a question or a mistake we’d like to fix with your ballot, we may reach out to you via PM. We hope to get a timely response so we can correct any ballot and have it included. Thank you for being such a consistent and great group of voters this year and we hope you'll be back to start next season all over again!

Score = academic ranking divided by conference wins. (Lower the better)

1. Northwestern (3)

2. Michigan (4.2)

3. UCLA (5)

4. Illinois (5.5)

5. Ohio State (5.8)

6. USC (6.8)

7. Penn State (7.9)

8. Indiana (9.1)

9. Rutgers (10.3)

10. Minnesota (10.8)

11. Washington (11.5)

12. Oregon (12.1)

13. Wisconsin (13)

14. Iowa (16.3)

15. Michigan State (21)

16. Maryland (44)

17. Nebraska (50.1)

18. Purdue (92) >! (gave Purdue 0.5 wins otherwise their score would be infinity. they did take Illinois to OT so there’s that) !<

Not sure if anyone cares but it’s always interesting to see where the athletes end up.

Maddy Brum is back on tech along with James Thomas (navarro alum) and is joined by like 8 navarro athletes lol (Aliyah Clark, Kennedy Robinson, Deidra Juarez, Katie Evans, Peyton Pierce, Devan Jones, Alex Bouhuys & Brock Donald). Benji from tvcc also made it and so did Diamond Myles who also went to tvcc, not sure if anyone knows her but she was on a lot of well known allstar teams too.

Paige & Oliver from navarro are off to weber, and like half of last years tvcc team also got in (saw pictures of Dee from cheer & Hailey D’lynn with the newest group of athletes so think they got in). Assuming Bailee, Gillian etc all made it too considering they have previously been on the team so it will be really interesting to see what happens when they have so many incredible new flyers!

Some of the lesser known athletes from both teams are off to University of Kentucky, University of South Florida & University of Louisville which are all good schools.