The preseason Associated Press Top 25 college football poll held up pretty well in 2023.
The final AP Top 25 was released early Tuesday after Michigan defeated Washington in the College Football Playoff national title game to finish No. 1.
Seventeen teams that began the season ranked in the Top 25 finished in the rankings and only eight did not. Typically, about 10 or 11 teams that start the season ranked end the season unranked.
That comes after two seasons in which there was record turnover from start to finish in the poll. Fifteen teams that started the 2021 season ranked ended it unranked. That tied a record. Last year, the record was broken when 16 preseason ranked teams finished unranked.
In a chalky 2023 with very few upsets, six of the top 10 teams in the preseason rankings landed in the final top 10. Only one preseason top 10 team didn’t finish ranked at all: Southern California.
A look at the final AP Top 25 with a look ahead to next season when realignment will dramatically change regular-season matchups:
No. 1 Michigan (15-0)
Georgia players celebrate a touchdown by Georgia tight end Lawson Luckie in the second half of the Orange Bowl NCAA college football game against Florida State, Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Credit: AP/Rebecca Blackwell
2024 key games: vs. Texas, Sept. 7; vs. USC, Sept. 21; at Washington, Oct. 5; at Ohio State, Nov. 30.
Leaving: As many as seven offensive linemen; as many as eight defensive starters; RB Blake Corum.
Returning: DT Kenneth Grant; CB Will Johnson; TE Colston Loveland.
Reality check: With coach Jim Harbaugh’s future uncertain – as well as QB J.J. McCarthy’s – next season see a huge reset in Ann Arbor. Though it could still start as a fringe top-10 team.
Georgia quarterback Carson Beck (15) sits with his mother Tracy, center, after the Orange Bowl NCAA college football game against Florida State, Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky
No. 2 Washington (14-1)
2024 key games:…
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