Though the 2025 college football season is just a few days away, hope still springs eternal among most fanbases. That veneer of offseason optimism has yet to wear off. All of the positive training camp reports and preseason rankings have bolstered that positive outlook.

The first AP Top 25 college football poll of the season has been released. Let's see how all of the teams stack up.

Using AP Top 25 preseason polls from 2014 to 2023 and comparing them to final CFP rankings over the same period, I came up with a very unscientific “formula” for predicting a playoff bracket.