ESPN releases first Top 25 SP+ rankings for 2025 season, Oregon Cracks Top 10

The first version of the ESPN Top 25 SP+ rankings have been published. These are some pretty popular rankings done by ESPN’s data analyst Bill Connelly. It’s one of the few rankings that removes emotion from the equation.
For a refresher, Connelly’s SP+ projection rankings are built around three primary factors: returning production based on current roster makeup, recent recruiting metrics and a team’s recent history based around performance over past three seasons. By combining all three factors, Connelly built an analytic-based ranking hierarchy at what the 2025 preseason rankings could look like.
As you can see Oregon cracked his top 10 but is not as highly ranked here as they are elsewhere. The Big Ten however leads the way with two of the top three teams.
Top 10
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- 2
Morez Johnson
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- 3
Buzz Williams
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- 4
Tre Donaldson
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- 5Hot
Pat McAfee
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6. Oregon
The Ducks stepped into the Big Ten and took it over in 2024, winning the conference championship in convincing fashion as the only FBS team to go undefeated through championship week. But after earning a first-round bye in the CFP, Oregon ran into the postseason buzzsaw that was Ohio State with a blowout quarterfinal loss.
Fourth-year coach Dan Lanning is once again relying heavily on rebuilding through the transfer portal, though his biggest addition could be former UCLA transfer QB Dante Moore, who redshirted in 2024 and is primed to replace Dillon Gabriel as the Ducks’ QB1 in 2025 and beyond.
Check out Connelly’s Top 25 SP+ 2025 preseason power rankings below:
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Penn State
- Georgia
- Notre Dame
- Oregon
- Texas
- Tennessee
- Ole Miss
- LSU
- Clemson
- Texas A&M
- Michigan
- Miami
- Missouri
- South Carolina
- Florida
- SMU
- Kansa State
- Oklahoma
- Iowa
- Louisville
- Auburn
- Indiana
- Illinois