A top-five showing for Clemson, and a top-15 placement for South Carolina in Monday’s release of the AP College Football preseason Top 25. For the first time in 11 years, the Tigers and Gamecocks will go into a season together in the national ranking.
Clemson will start the season ranked fourth by the media members who participate in the weekly voting. This marks the 35th time Clemson has been in the AP preseason ranking. The Tigers have been preseason ranked every season since 2012, and this is their highest preseason ranking since starting the 2022 season at number four.
The Tigers received four first-place votes from Greg Madia of Charlottesville, VA, Jon Wilner of San Jose, CA, Koki Riley of Baton Rouge and Reece Davis of ESPN. Scott Hamilton of the Post and Courier had the Tigers second on his ballot, and Pete Yanity of WSPA TV ranked the Tigers sixth.
The low ranking for Clemson was 11th
South Carolina, which was 13th in the voting, is in the preseason ranking for the 11th time overall and the first time since the 2014 season, when they started the season ranked ninth. Four voters ranked the Gamecocks as high as tenth, and seven left them off the ballot. Hamilton ranked the Gamecocks 12th, and Yanity ranked them 14th.
AP Preseason Top 25
- Texas (25)
- Penn State (23)
- Ohio State (11)
- Clemson (4)
- Georgia (1)
- Notre Dame
- Oregon (1)
- Alabama
- LSU
- Miami (FL)
- Arizona State
- Illinois
- South Carolina
- Michigan
- Florida
- SMU
- Kansas State
- Oklahoma
- Texas A&M
- Indiana
- Ole Miss
- Iowa State
- Texas Tech
- Tennessee
- Boise State
Others receiving votes: BYU 156, Utah 144, Baylor 132, Louisville 90, Southern Cal 64, Georgia Tech 63, Missouri 33, Tulane 23, Nebraska 23, UNLV 21, Toledo 13, Auburn 10, James Madison 9, Memphis 9, Florida St. 8, Duke 6, Liberty 5, Navy 5, Iowa 5, TCU 4, Pittsburgh 3, Army 2, Colorado 1, Louisiana-Lafayette 1