College football rankings: Texas leads the way, Penn State tops Ohio State in preseason CBS Sports 136

Preseason college football rankings have always been a challenging exercise, but never has it been more of a guessing game than the modern era. Massive roster turnover through the transfer portal and the annual musical chairs at the quarterback position have brought uncertainty to some of the more traditional methods of ranking teams, forcing college football experts to dig deeper to formulate opinions on how these teams stack up against each other before the first kickoff of the season. 

Luckily, our CBS Sports 136 voters are willing to do that work, ranking not only a top 25 — like those other polls — but stacking the entire FBS landscape against each other. As we cycle back for another season, we here at CBS Sports and 247Sports welcome Delaware and Missouri State to the list as our ballot grows from 134 teams to 136 teams. 

In terms of the top of the rankings, the CBS Sports 136 is in line with the Coaches Poll in naming Texas as the No. 1 team. The Longhorns were a top-four team at the end of last year and boast one of the most talented rosters in the country. Texas has been so consistent the last two seasons that we’re not even talking about the Longhorns being “back.” Those jokes are long gone because Texas is “here,” and it’s time for the Arch Manning era to begin. 

Where the CBS Sports 136 strays from the Coaches Poll, and even the oddsmakers, is having Penn State, not Ohio State, at No. 2. The Nittany Lions are loaded up with returning stars from a team that also made it to the CFP semifinals a year ago, and with multiple players turning down the NFL Draft, they have the same kind of unified veteran movement that recent champions like 2023 Michigan and 2024 Ohio State had going into their trophy-claiming seasons. Now, the Buckeyes are not far back, checking in at No. 3, with some voters favoring Ohio State to Penn State even if that did not come through as the consensus. 

Speaking of consensus, it gets even more difficult to find real consensus the closer you get to the edge of the top 10 and certainly within the rest of the top 30. Teams coming off CFP appearances like Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon and Arizona State were easy picks to push to the top of a ballot, joining talent-laden teams like Alabama and LSU that fell short of expectations a year ago. 

Expectations are a big factor in some of the biggest year-over-year movers from last season’s final CBS Sports 134 of 2024-25 to this year’s preseason edition of the CBS Sports 136. Teams that are expected to see an increase in the win total or compete at a level closer to their talent are rising up in the rankings after last year’s disappointments, and some teams that may have exceeded expectations with surprise seasons in 2024 find themselves starting 2025 further down on our experts’ ballots. We’ve highlighted some of the most notable changes in the rankings from last year’s final CBS Sports rankings in the Mover’s Report below the top 25 table. 

This preseason edition of the CBS Sports 136 will hold until we get through Week 1 and everyone’s got a result on the board after Labor Day. Until then, peruse our top 25 and the entire CBS Sports 136 to see how our experts see the FBS landscape heading into the 2025 season.

College football experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports contribute ballots each week, which are averaged together for our rankings. You can see the top 25 below and 26-136 on our rankings page.

Biggest movers 

• No. 25 Utah (+59): Our voters are clearly expecting a return to form for Kyle Whittingham’s program, bouncing back from last year’s 5-7 showing to be right back in the mix for the Big 12 title. Some more consistent availability at the quarterback position will be a welcome start, with Devon Dampier arriving from New Mexico to be the centerpiece of a re-tooled offense.  
• No. 24 Oklahoma (+34): A bowl loss to Navy erased a lot of the positive rankings momentum that the Sooners gained from beating Alabama. Oklahoma fell outside the top 50 in our final rankings, which sets up for a big jump up once the slate was wiped clean. Like Utah, Oklahoma is bringing in a new quarterback and a new offensive coordinator to spark some more success on that side of the ball. 
• No. 32 Auburn (+34): Missing the postseason was not in the cards for Auburn in Year 2 under Hugh Freeze, and the urgency to correct those disappointing results included some high-profile transfer portal additions that have raised expectations going into 2025. New quarterback Jackson Arnold has a wide receiver room loaded with future pros, and if the defense can be strong along the lines of scrimmage, then No. 32 might even be low considering the team’s ceiling. It’s clear that, after two years, our voters are going to wait to see that improvement before projecting it with their ballots. 
• No. 12 Florida (+23): Billy Napier entered the middle of November with a 4-5 record needing multiple ranked wins to even reach a bowl game. But, after wins against LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State, the Gators added a bowl win to boost momentum heading into the offseason. Florida has NFL talent on both lines of scrimmage and potentially one of the best quarterbacks in the country with DJ Lagway, so a top 20 ranking is fair for the Gators given the roster talent.  
• No. 42 Syracuse (-21): The Orange were one of the best stories of 2024 with Fran Brown helping lead the program’s third 10-win campaign since 2000. But, after losing nearly all of the team’s offensive leaders, there’s an expectation from our voters that there will be a step back in 2025.  
• No. 36 BYU (-23): A gaudy win total at the end of the year left BYU with a high ranking, but our voters aren’t ready to anoint the Cougars as a Big 12 title contender just yet. The exit of Jake Retzlaff does bring up some questions about replicating the production at quarterback, but the foundation of Kilani Sitake’s program is too strong to push the Cougars too far down the ballot. 
• No. 34 Boise State (-25): Like BYU, our voters were not ready to kick Boise State too far down the line but clearly favored more traditional recruiting powers when it came to the preseason ballot. Boise State does have a talent advantage against most teams in the Mountain West, though, so while the Broncos might not be a top 10 team again in 2025, it is a team to watch in the College Football Playoff race. 
• No. 58 UNLV (-36): Few teams in all of the FBS have less returning production than UNLV, which is undergoing a total roster flip in the transition from Barry Odom to Dan Mullen. Odom was already relying on a lot of transfers to field a team that racked up a lot of wins in 2024, and now Mullen will do the same as he looks to hit the ground running in Las Vegas. 

Check out the rest of the CBS Sports 136: Teams ranked 26-136