College Football Top 25 Rankings, Title Odds And 2025 Preview

The 2025 college football season kicks off this week with a handful of contests in Week 0 including a key Big 12 contest in Ireland between conference contenders Iowa State and Kansas State (-3.5) on Saturday, Sept. 23. This past week the Associated Press (AP) released it’s college football Top 25 Poll to kickoff the season, and the conference breakdown in the polls is dominated by the SEC and Big Ten.

– SEC: 10 teams including 4 in top-10
– Big Ten: 6 including 3 in top-10
– ACC: 3
– Big 12: 4
– Mountain West: 1
– Independent: 1

Some of the biggest early season games kickoff in Week 1 over Labor Day weekend, and I’ll have select picks and coverage with information you can bet on.

– Texas at Ohio State (-2.5)
– Auburn (-2.5) at Baylor
– Alabama (-13.5) at Florida State
– LSU at Clemson (-4)
– Notre Dame (-2) at Miami

College Football Top 25

There is better value than betting futures on many of these Top 25 contenders, including on conference odds, adjusted odds market and weekly matchups and props. But with these teams drawing more attention and Top 25 weekly odds, updates and recaps, I cover them more as the most bet games while following and adjusting to the betting market during the season.

2025 CFB Top 25
Team	AP Rank	CFB Title Odds
Texas	1	+550
Penn State	2	+700
Ohio State	3	+700
Clemson	4	+850
Georgia	5	+650
Notre Dame	6	+1000
Oregon	7	+1400
Alabama	8	+900
LSU	9	+1200
Miami	10	+2500
Arizona State	11	+12500
Illinoi	12	+15000
South Carolina	13	+6600
Michigan	14	+3300
Florida	15	+3300
SMU	16	+10000
Kansas State	17	+10000
Oklahoma	18	+4000
Texas A&M	19	+3300
Indiana	20	+12500
Mississippi	21	+5000
Iowa State	22	+20000
Texas Tech	23	+10000
Tennessee	24	+7500
Boise State	25	+25000

Last year, 13 of college football teams that started the season in the AP Poll finished outside the final Top 25 rankings. The AP Poll adds to the coverage of college football, but many observers point to the season-long advantages early-ranked teams receive, and they point to the inaccuracies the polls perennially produce.

Some observations and notes include:

– No. 12 Arizona State has worse CFP odds than 14 teams ranked below the Sun Devils
– No. 13 Illinois has worse CFP odds than 16 teams ranked below the Illini
– No. 6 Georgia has the second-lowest CFP odds
– No. 19 Oklahoma has the 14th-best CFP odds
– No. 20 Texas A&M is tied for the 11th-best CFP odds
– No. 25 Boise State has the worst CFP odds of any ranked team
– Auburn has the best CFP odds of unranked teams and better odds than 9 ranked teams
– USC has the second-best CFP odds of unranked teams and better odds than 8 ranked teams

– Five unranked teams have Top 25 CFP odds rankings – Auburn, USC, Louisville, Utah and Nebraska. Five more teams are top-30 including Baylor, Georgia Tech, Iowa, Missouri and TCU, who will all be among the next tier of teams looking to move into the Top 25 in September.

The Associated Press selects voters for the AP Poll from sports reporters around the country who cover college football, and there are 65 pollsters in the 2025 season. Many rely on information from betting industry experts and handicappers who research teams thoroughly and provide preseason magazines like Phil Steele, who I referenced with his rankings and insight in my preseason conference previews.

I add more college football top 25 betting odds and information on some of the quarterback battles on top teams in my college football update at OSGA.