2025 College Football Composite Top 25 Cheatsheet

Method (same as your rules).Each team’s rank is the simple average of four lists—AP preseason, Coaches preseason, SP+ (preseason), and FPI (after Week 1 on Aug 31, 2025). If a team is unranked in a list, it counts as 26th. In the Coaches Poll tie at No. 21, both teams were counted as 21st.

Top 25

1. Texas

2. Ohio State

3. Georgia

4. Penn State

5. Notre Dame

6. Oregon

7. Alabama

8. LSU

9. Clemson

10. Ole Miss

11. Miami (FL)

12. South Carolina

13. Michigan

14. Florida

15. Tennessee

16. Texas A&M

17. Arizona State

18. SMU

19. Illinois

20. USC

21. Oklahoma

22. Kansas State

23. Indiana

24. Auburn

25. Missouri

Time stamp.Inputs come from the AP preseason (Aug 14, 2025), Coaches preseason (Aug 4, 2025), SP+ preseason (Aug 13, 2025), and FPI as updated on Aug 31, 2025.

Why these four inputs?

• AP Top 25 (preseason) — media voters; résumé/perception oriented. It opened with Texas No. 1, Penn State No. 2, Ohio State No. 3.

  
  

• Coaches Poll (preseason) — head coaches; also opinion‑based. It likewise had Texas No. 1, then Ohio State No. 2, Penn State No. 3, with a tie at No. 21 (Texas A&M, Iowa State).

  
  

• SP+ (preseason) — Bill Connelly’s predictive model. The final preseason release had Ohio State No. 1 ahead of Alabama and Georgia, with Texas at No. 5 and Clemson at No. 10 (lower than the human polls).

  
  

• FPI (after Week 1) — another predictive rating updated Aug 31, 2025; that day’s board had Texas No. 1, Georgia No. 2, Ohio State No. 3, and showed USC at No. 6 (despite being unranked in the human preseason polls).

How the average produced this order (quick reads)

• Consensus at the very top. Averaging a No. 1/1/5/1 profile puts Texas first, just ahead of Ohio State (3/2/1/3). Georgia and Penn State are effectively tied right behind (both grade out as ~3.5 on average), which matches the human‑poll love and SP+ respect.

  
  

• Model vs. poll tension (Clemson, USC).

  • Clemson sits No. 9 here because human polls had the Tigers No. 4/6 while SP+ and FPI were more cautious (No. 10 SP+, No. 21 FPI).

  • USC lands No. 20 despite being unranked in both human preseason lists, because FPI (No. 6) and SP+ (No. 21) drag them up.

  
  

• Why Arizona State and Illinois appear. Both were firmly ranked by AP and Coaches (ASU 11/11; Illinois 12/12) even though they were outside SP+’s top 20 and not favored by FPI, so the average keeps them in at No. 17 and No. 19.

  
  

• “Computer‑helped” bubble teams. Auburn (No. 24) and Missouri (No. 25) are unranked by AP/Coaches but score well in SP+ and/or FPI (Auburn SP+ 22 / FPI 16; Missouri SP+ 20 / FPI 18), nudging them into the bottom of the composite.

First five out (by the same averaging rule).BYU, Iowa State, Utah, Texas Tech, Boise State were the next‑closest teams by average score using the same inputs and “unranked = 26” rule—close enough that a small move in any single list would bump one into the Top 25. (FPI, for example, had BYU No. 17 on Aug 31.)

What to do with this cheatsheet

• Use the AP/Coaches side for a résumé snapshot and how human voters are leaning.

  
  

• Use SP+ and FPI to understand forward‑looking strength and likely point‑spreads; early in the season, these models can disagree with the human polls (and with each other).

  
  

• Expect the composite to shift weekly, because FPI updates daily with each game and SP+ will move as in‑season data accumulates.