For the second consecutive year, Georgia will start the college football season as the preseason No. 1 in the US LBM Coaches Poll.
That follows two consecutive years when the coaches panel put Alabama at the top preseason ranking only to watch the Bulldogs – its SEC rival – finish No. 1 in the season’s final poll and claim back-to-back national championships.
This season marks the third time Georgia has been ranked preseason No. 1 in the 34-year history of USA TODAY Sports administering the coaches poll. Will this year be the charm when then can start and finish in the same spot?
History isn’t on their side. More on that shortly.
Georgia football’s paths to No. 1 and disappointment
Georgia topped the 2008 preseason poll but their stay there was short-lived. The Bulldogs were quickly leap-frogged by Southern California (No. 23 in this year’s poll). The change came after the season opener when Georgia defeated Georgia Southern by 24 points, but USC blasted Virginia 52-7 on their home turf. Georgia would suffer three losses and ended the season ranked 10th.
Winning a championship, of course, doesn’t rest on what a panel of 55 head coaches at Football Bowl Subdivision schools say in August, but the outcomes of these past 33 years offer some intriguing insights.
How many college football preseason No. 1s have finished No. 1
The two other Georgia or Alabama teams aren’t alone in falling short of our coaches’ preseason predictions. A preseason No. 1 team hasn’t finished No. 1 since Alabama did in the 2017 season.
Since USA TODAY began its relationship with the poll in the 1991 season, the coaches’ preseason No. 1s have become postseason No. 1s just four times – just over 12% of the time. Only twice have teams held the No. 1 position throughout: Florida State in 1999 and Southern California in 2004.
SEC conference football teams lead with most weekly No. 1 rankings
In the 527 coaches’ polls taken since 1991, a Southeastern Conference or Atlantic Coast Conference team ranked No. 1 in nearly two-thirds of the votes.
Until Georgia’s run in the 2021 season, only 10 schools had double-digit weeks in first place: Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Southern California.
For more than 7½ years (since Nov. 15, 2015), Clemson or an SEC team topped the the US LBM Coaches Poll. The conference’s growing dominance in football continues in 2024. Nine of the Top 25 teams in the preseason coaches poll are from the SEC – up from six last year – helped by the addition of Oklahoma and Texas to the league.
Much of the SEC’s dominance at the top of the poll can be linked to Alabama. The Crimson Tide held a weekly No.1 ranking in nearly every season since their 2008 campaign. Since Nov. 2, 2008, they’ve been first in nearly half of the polls.
Still, it’s been the years where Alabama – this year’s No. 5 team – started at No. 2 or lower where they have brought home the national championship trophy. In the past 33 years, preseason No. 2 teams have been twice as likely to finish No. 1.
Where post-season No. 1 college football teams started
Since the start of the College Football Playoff in 2014, no team ranked seventh or lower in the preseason has won the national championship.
So which teams are likely in the mix this year? Here’s the coaches’ poll top 10.
Who is in the US LBM Coaches Poll top 25
The initial Top 25 for this year is dominated by teams from the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference, but there is also strong representation from the Big 12.
With all of the uncertainty and change entering this season, it’s worth analyzing the schools that find themselves starting in the rankings. Click here to see the season outlooks for all of the teams that begin their campaigns in the preseason poll.