As we approach 50 days to go until the season begins, let’s set the stage with the 2025 college football top 50 preview.

Last season, the first with a 12-team College Football Playoff, the bracket broke down in the later rounds, and the 8-seed, Ohio State, won the national championship. What will the Buckeyes do for an encore? You’ll just have to find out for the rest of us, but I think you will find their Bracket Yard preseason ranking to be very favorable.

2025 College Football Top 50 Preview: Countdown

Over the next seven weeks or so, we will count down our top 50 teams for the upcoming college football season. The countdown begins on Friday, July 4, which is exactly 50 days from the Week Zero kickoff. This ends on Friday, August 22, one day before the start of the season, with our number one team of the preseason.

2025 College Football Top 50 Preview: What to Look for In 2025

College Football Playoff

For one thing, the format of the College Football Playoff will endure a slight change. In the 2024 postseason, the top four conference champions received first-round byes, regardless of where they landed in the CFP rankings. This meant that (3) Boise State, eighth in the CFP rankings, had a higher seed than (7) Notre Dame, who were third.

This will no longer be the case in 2025. While the top five conference champions will all still get bids, the teams will be arranged based on their CFP ranking, irrespective of whether or not they won their conference.

When It Starts

The first games will kick off on Saturday, August 23. This is colloquially known as “Week Zero,” as it is a relatively small slate of games. Most involve non-conference matchups, though one which does not is the Aer Lingus College Football Classic, played in Dublin, Ireland between Big 12 foes Iowa State and Kansas State.

Week 1 officially begins with the crowded Thursday, August 28 slate and continues through Labor Day, Monday, September 1. The first rankings will be issued shortly thereafter.

New Conference Alignment

Delaware and Missouri State have been promoted from FCS to FBS, and will join Conference USA. Neither will be eligible for a bowl game in the midst of this transition, per the rules.

UMass, previously an FBS independent, will join the MAC. The Minutemen were previously in the MAC from 2012 to 2015 and have rejoined.

Heisman Watch

There is no official watch list out as of July 1 for the Heisman Trophy, but that has not stopped the bookies from making their own.

BetMGM’s favorite as of July 2025 is Texas quarterback Arch Manning, grandson of Archie and nephew of Peyton and Eli. He is taking over as starter for Quinn Ewers, who was drafted in the seventh round by the Miami Dolphins.

In second position is Garrett Nussmeier, quarterback for LSU, followed by Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State wide receiver.

2024 Heisman winner Travis Hunter of Colorado is now in the NFL, so no chance of a repeat this year.

2025 College Football Top 50 Preview: Who Are The Favorites?

Any conversation about the 2025 season has to include Ohio State, the defending national champions who expect to put another contending team on the field this year. As we said, their preseason rank with us will be rather high, since we already know what it is.

Texas and the presumptive Heisman favorite Manning will also be in the discussion, but you can also expect Notre Dame, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Penn State, and Oregon to be among the teams that get attention.