Two human polls and a committee's selections comprise the

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) Division I

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

(FBS) football rankings, in addition to various publications' preseason polls. Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the NCAA, does not bestow a

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

at the FBS level. Instead, that title is bestowed by one or more different polling agencies. There are two main weekly polls that begin in the preseason—the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

and the

Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

. One additional poll, the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

(CFP) ranking, is usually released starting midway through the season. The CFP rankings determine who makes the four-team playoff that determines the College Football Playoff National Champion.

Legend

AP Poll

Ranking highlights

;Preseason *

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

(No. 2) received its highest preseason rank since No. 2 in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

(No. 5) received its highest preseason rank since No. 5 in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. *

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

(No. 6) received its highest preseason rank since No. 4 in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. *

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

(No. 8) received its highest preseason rank since No. 3 in 2017. *

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

(No. 10) received its highest preseason rank since No. 6 in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. *

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

(No. 12) received its highest preseason rank since No. 9 in 2016. *

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

(No. 16) received its highest preseason rank since No. 13 in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. *

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

(No. 18) received its highest preseason rank since No. 11 in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. *

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

(No. 24) received its first preseason rank in program history. ;Week 1 *

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

(No. 1) received its 100th consecutive weekly rank in the AP poll. * Florida State (No. 4) received its highest regular season rank since No. 2 in the Week 2 poll in 2016. *

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

(No. 11) received its highest regular season rank since No. 9 in the Week 4 poll in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

. *

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

(No. 21) received its first Week 1 rank since

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

. *

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

(No. 22) received its first Week 1 rank since

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. * Tulane (No. 24) received its first Week 1 rank since

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

. * First time

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

(No. 17) and Duke were both ranked in the same week since the Week 15 poll in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

. ;Week 2 * Colorado (No. 18) received its highest regular season rank since No. 11 in the Week 14 poll in 2016. * First time

(No. 8) and

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

(No. 23) were both ranked in the same week since the Week 3 poll in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. * First time Florida State (No. 3) and

Miami (FL) Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...

(No. 22) were both ranked in the same week since the preseason poll in 2018. ;Week 3 * Duke (No. 18) received its highest rank since No. 18 in 1994. * Oregon State (No. 14) received its highest rank since No. 13 in the Week 10 poll in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

. * Washington State (No. 21) received its highest rank since No. 19 in the Week 3 poll in 2019. * First time Florida State (No. 4), Miami (FL) (No. 20), and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

(No. 25) were all ranked in the same week since the Week 3 poll in 2017. ;Week 4 *

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

(No. 6) received its highest rank since No. 4 in the Week 5 poll in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

. * Washington (No. 7) received its highest rank since No. 7 in the Week 6 poll in 2018. * Washington State (No. 16) received its highest regular season rank since No. 12 in the Week 14 poll in 2018. * Duke (No. 17) received its highest rank since No. 16 in the Week 9 poll in 1994. * First time

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

(No. 23) and

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

(No. 24) were both ranked in the same week since the Week 5 poll in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. * First time Kansas was ranked in back-to-back seasons since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

-09. * First time the

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

had four teams ranked in the Top 10: Washington (No. 7), USC (No. 8),

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

(No. 9), and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

(No. 10). ;Week 5 * Missouri (No. 21) received its highest rank since No. 21 in the Week 1 poll in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. * First time

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

(No. 20) and

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

(No. 25) were both ranked in the same week since the Week 3 poll in 2020. ;Week 6 * Louisville (No. 14) received its highest rank since No. 14 in the Week 2 poll in 2017. * First time Kansas (No. 23) was ranked in multiple polls in consecutive seasons since 2008-09. ;Week 7 * Oregon State (No. 12) received its highest rank since No. 7 in the Week 8 poll in 2012. * Duke (No. 16) received its highest rank since No. 16 in the Week 9 poll in 1994. * Missouri (No. 20) received its highest rank since No. 14 in the final

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

poll. *

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

(No. 22) received its highest rank since No. 22 in the final 2019 poll. ;Week 8 * Air Force (No. 19) received its highest rank since No. 18 in the Week 8 poll in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. ;Week 9 * Missouri (No. 16) received its highest rank since No. 14 in the final 2014 poll. * Air Force (No. 17) received its highest rank since No. 13 in the final

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

poll. ;Week 10 * Georgia (No. 1) tied

- 02 Miami (FL) for the second most consecutive weeks at No. 1 with 21 weeks. * Louisville (No. 11) received its highest rank since No. 11 in the Week 12 poll in 2016. * First time two Virginia-based teams,

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

(No. 21) and

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

(No. 25), were ranked in the same week since the Week 12 poll in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. ;Week 11 * Oregon State (No. 10) makes its first appearance in the Top 10 for the first time since the Week 8 poll in 2012. * Missouri (No. 11) received its highest rank since No. 5 in the final

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

poll. *

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

(No. 19) received its highest rank since No. 16 in the Week 3 poll in 2015. ;Week 12 * Missouri (No. 10) makes its first appearance in the Top 10 for the first time since the final 2013 poll. * Toledo (No. 23) makes its first appearance in the Top 25 for the first time since the Week 12 poll in 2015. ;Week 13 * Arizona (No. 14) received its highest rank since No. 12 in the Week 15 poll in 2014. * First time the Pac-12 had two teams, Washington (No. 3) and Oregon (No. 5), in the Top 5 since the final 2016 poll. * First time the Top 8 consisted of the same teams in five straight weeks since Weeks 11-15 in 2008. ;Week 14 * Michigan (No. 1) makes its first appearance at No. 1 since the final

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

poll. * Washington (No. 2) received its highest rank since No. 2 since the Week 4 poll in 1997. * Georgia's (No. 6) streak of being ranked No. 1 ends at 24 straight weeks, second most behind USC's 33 weeks from 2003 to

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. ;Final Poll * Michigan (No. 1) finished in the Top 5 for three straight seasons for the first time in program history. * Washington (No. 2) finished in the Top 10 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

-91. * Texas (No. 3) received its highest final ranking since No. 2 in 2009. * Alabama (No. 5) was not ranked No. 1 at some point during the season for the first time since

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. * Ole Miss (No. 9) received its highest final ranking since No. 8 in 1969. * SMU (No. 22) received its first final ranking since No. 8 in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

. * First time Kansas State (No. 18) and Kansas (No. 23) were both ranked in the final week since

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

. * Third straight season the

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

finished with no teams ranked in the Top 5. * First time

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

finished with a team ranked, Liberty (No. 25), since

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

finished No. 24 in 2015.

Coaches Poll

CFP rankings

Ranking highlights

;Week 9 *

(No. 7) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. *

(No. 12) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. *

(No. 21) was ranked in the CFP rankings for the first time since the format was adopted in 2014. *

(No. 25) was ranked in the CFP rankings for the first time since the format was adopted in 2014. ;Week 10 *

(No. 12) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. * Kansas (No. 16) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. ;Week 11 * Missouri (No. 9) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. * Oregon State (No. 11) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. ;Week 12 *

(No. 25) was ranked in the CFP rankings for the first time since the format was adopted in 2014. ;Week 13 *

(No. 3) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. * Liberty (No. 24) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. ;Final Poll *

(No. 1) received its highest CFP ranking in program history and became the eighth program to be ranked No. 1 in the CFP rankings. * Washington (No. 2) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. * Texas (No. 3) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. *

(No. 5) became the first undefeated champion from a Power Five conference (

) to not make the playoffs. * Liberty (No. 23) received its highest CFP ranking in program history. * SMU (No. 24) received its highest CFP ranking in program history.

References

{{2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season navbox

Rankings A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

NCAA Division I FBS football rankings