College football’s final AP Top 25 rankings of the 2024 season will be released soon after Monday night’s CFP National Championship Game pitting Ohio State and Notre Dame from Atlanta. The culmination of a campaign filled with parity and several surprise teams making their first playoff appearances from various leagues will be settled inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a title game without a representative from the SEC for the second-straight year.
The last preseason No. 1 in the AP rankings to win the national championship was Alabama, which outlasted Georgia in an overtime thriller to claim the title. The AP poll began in 1936 and will continue in 2025, independent of the playoff rankings.
As we do weekly during the regular season, we’re projecting how the final AP Top 25 will look ahead of its release. It’s based on the expected bowl-season fluctuation given the season-ending results across the top 25. Not all postseason teams were affected by opt-outs, but there were a few who lost after failing to reach the playoff and will drop in the rankings as a result.
RELATED: Predicting the College Football Playoff’s next 10 national champions
Here’s how we expect the AP Top 25’s final rankings to look after Monday’s championship game:
