College football rankings: SEC teams in final Coaches Poll, AP Top 25 of 2023 season
For just the fifth time in the past 18 years, a team from outside the SEC has been crowned as the college football national champion.
The conference, however, will still be well-represented among the country’s top teams.
One day after Michigan’s win over Washington in the College Football Playoff national championship game Monday in Houston, the final Associated Press poll of the 2023 season was released, with the US LBM Coaches Poll to be released later in the day. They will paint one last picture of the national college football landscape before a new season begins in August.
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The SEC finished with several top-10 teams.
Georgia, despite its head-to-head loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game, finished as the No. 4 team in the country following its 63-3 victory over Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Alabama, which lost 27-20 in overtime to eventual national champion Michigan, finished one spot behind the Bulldogs, at fifth.
No. 9 Missouri and No. 11 Ole Miss beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl and Penn State in the Peach Bowl, respectively, to polish off 11-2 seasons. No. 13 LSU, even without Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, beat Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl. No. 23 Tennessee also jump into the top 20 after shutting out Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.
The two polls once crowned national champions, but ever since the advent of the Bowl Championship Series for the 1998 season, they’re largely formalities in determining what is recognized as the best team in the nation. Still, the polls are a final measuring stick for teams beyond the top spot in the rankings.
Here are the final Coaches and AP polls of the 2023 season:
Final College football rankings for 2023 season
US LBM Coaches Poll
This section will be updated when the US LBM Coaches Poll is released.
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AP Top 25
SEC teams in bold
(First-place votes in parentheses)
15-0 Michigan (61)
14-1 Washington
12-2 Texas
13-1 Georgia
12-2 Alabama
12-2 Oregon
13-1 Florida State
11-2 Missouri
11-2 Ole Miss
11-2 Ohio State
10-3 Arizona
10-3 LSU
10-3 Penn State
10-3 Notre Dame
10-3 Oklahoma
10-4 Oklahoma State
9-4 Tennessee
9-4 Kansas Sate
10-4 Louisville
9-4 Clemson
9-4 NC State
11-3 SMU
9-4 Kansas
10-4 Iowa
13-1 Liberty
Others receiving votes: Oregon State 96, West Virginia 90, Tulane 76, James Madison 52, USC 35, Memphis 32, Utah 14, Troy 10, AirForce 8, Toledo 7, Duke 6, Kentucky 4, UCLA 4, Miami (Ohio) 4, UTSA 3, Wyoming 2, Northwestern 2, Ohio 1.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: SEC teams in Coaches Poll, AP Top 25 after CFP championship game
