Phil Steele releases college football AP top 10 for 2022 six months in advance

With spring football upon us, Phil Steele has released his selections for the AP Top 25’s top 10 teams with six months remaining ahead of kickoff to the 2022 college football season. It should be noted that over the last 13 years, 125 of Steele’s 130 (96.2%) projected top 10 teams in February made the actual top 10 to begin the following season.

Why is this important? Steele’s predicted AP Top 10 has been a perfect 10 for 10 each of the last four years. When Steele predicts the AP Top 10 in February, he correctly predicts all 10 teams in eight of the 13 years, and has missed by just one team in the other five years.

“I seem to have a pretty good feel for how the voters will rank these teams come August,” Steele wrote.

Phil Steele’s 2022 Projected AP Preseason Top 10.

1. Alabama
2. Georgia
3. Ohio State
4. Clemson
5. Texas A&M
6. Notre Dame
7. Michigan
8. Utah
9. Oklahoma
10. Oregon

Steele made it important to make the point that this is not his preseason Top 10 for next season, rather what he is projecting the Preseason AP Top 10 will look like to start the season based on how he feels the voters will sway.

“This Top Ten is now part of the spring guide and in March, I will give the reasons for each team being in the Preseason AP Top this year. I feel confident that this will be another perfect 10 for 10 on these teams for the fifth straight year once the AP Preseason Poll is released mid to late August! When the AP Poll comes out a half of year from now make sure you check back to this blog to see how I did,” Steele wrote after announcing his selections.

Compare this poll to ESPN’s initial way-too-early Top 25, where ESPN agrees with seven of Steele’s selections in Alabama (1), Georgia (3), Ohio State (2), Texas A&M (4), Michigan (5), Notre Dame (6), Utah (7). Alabama and Notre Dame are the only selections with the same rankings.

ESPN left out Clemson, Oklahoma and Oregon, instead subbing in North Carolina State (8), Oklahoma State (9) and Michigan State (10). Clemson just missed out on ESPN’s top 10, coming in at No. 11, while Oregon fell to No. 12 and Oklahoma way down the line at No. 17.

With such an accurate track record over the years, these selections from Steele might be the closest we come to seeing which teams could crack the top 10 in the Preseason AP Top 25 poll, which won’t drop until mid August despite ESPN’s differing opinions.