BREAKING: Pre-Season Ranking for UGA Football Released for 2025

ATHENS - UGA Football opened as the No. 5 team in the nation according to the Associated Press, the longest-running ranking service in college football. Instead. Kirby Smart’s Dawgs will start the season as the No. 4 team in the country in the Coaches’ Poll. 

The College Football Playoff’s first rankings will be released in November. That will set up college football’s 12-team race to determine this season’s national champions. 

Texas opened as the No. 1 team in the nation. No. 2 Penn State has not won a national title in nearly 40 years. Ohio State opened at No. 3. Meanwhile, Clemson opened at No. 4 in the AP Poll - two spots higher than where the Tigers landed in the Coaches’ Poll.

UGA is coming into 2025 with its lowest pre-season ranking since starting off the 2021 season also ranked No. 5. 

Before 2023, UGA had not started a season ranked No. 1 since 2008, which was Matthew Stafford’s final season at Georgia. Georgia is coming off a 13-1 season in 2023. UGA beat three teams that finished the 2024 season ranked in the final top ten of the season.

This year the Bulldogs are set to take on five teams ranked in the pre-season top 25 (No. 1 Texas, No. 8 Alabama and No. 15 Florida, No. 21 Ole Miss and No. 24 Tennessee). 

Georgia is 19 days from its opener against Marshall. Insiders told Dawg Post that the Dawgs’ linebackers have looked outstanding during camp. 

“Stockton goes one, two, three and the ball is out, and he's accurate.”

Georgia was also picked by the media at the 2025 SEC Football Media Days to play Texas for the SEC Championship in Atlanta. 

Kirby told reporters in 2024 that he doesn’t pay attention to pre-season rankings. 

“I've never honestly paid any attention to it, and we don't talk about it as a team. The expectation is we're going to develop and worry about today's day, and we don't think about that.”

2025 Preseason AP Poll

1. Texas (25)
2. Penn State (23)
3. Ohio State (11)
4. Clemson (4)
5. Georgia (1)
6. Notre Dame 
7. Oregon (1)
8. Alabama
9. LSU
10. Miami
11. Arizona State
12. Illinois
13. South Carolina
14. Michigan
15. Florida
16. SMU
17. Kansas State
18. Oklahoma
19. Texas A&M
20. Indiana
21. Ole Miss
22. Iowa State
23. Texas Tech
24. Tennessee
25. Boise State