{"id":137323,"date":"2025-08-11T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/137323\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T16:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:02:10","slug":"ap-top-25-college-football-preseason-poll-texas-takes-first-time-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/137323\/","title":{"rendered":"AP Top 25 college football preseason poll: Texas takes first-time lead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The<a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> AP Top 25 college football poll<\/a> preseason rankings are now out. <b>Texas <\/b>took the No. 1 spot for the first time in an opening poll, narrowly edging out <b>Penn State <\/b>by just five points in the closest preseason vote since 1998. Defending champion<b> Ohio State<\/b> ranked No. 3.<\/p>\n<p>A tradition since 1936, no organization has been ranking teams and naming a major college football national champion<a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ap-top-25-1c4c6125a3a3238fb591aa8dbd2beee3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> longer than the AP<\/a> \u2014 and now you can follow live updates before and after the poll drops.<\/p>\n<p>See where your team ranks and which teams and players to watch ahead of<a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> the 2025 season.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Here\u2019s what to know:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" id=\"rte-162736c0-76cc-11f0-8c0f-e15ccdf742ce\">\n<li><b>Why Texas? <\/b>The Longhorns don\u2019t have a major mandate for the No. 1 ranking, but they\u2019ve been on an upward trajectory since going 5-7 in 2021. They\u2019ve won 25 of their last 30 games and reached two straight CFP semifinals. With undisputed starting quarterback Arch Manning at the helm, <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/arch-manning-texas-d2cb969023941e4ab0ec910820e6d1c4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cArch Mania\u201d is at a fever pitch<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><b>Who decides the rankings? <\/b>The Top 25 voters are over 60<a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ap-top25-ballot-process-voters-7ca67ed5b99003c484f96ac737bb780d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> journalists covering college football<\/a> for AP-member news organizations. They\u2019re urged to base their votes on head-to-head results, not reputation, preseason speculation or regional bias.<\/li>\n<li><b>When does the 2025 season start? <\/b>The wait is almost over. Opening weekend begins Saturday, Aug. 23.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u25b6 Show your appreciation for one of college football\u2019s longest-running traditions.<a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/donate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Donate to AP.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AP Top 25 college football poll preseason rankings are now out. Texas took the No. 1 spot&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":137324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[82452,1428,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-137323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ap-top-25-college-football-poll","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115010977411046910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}