The preseason AP Top 25 is out, and Mississippi State football is in for a gauntlet

The return of college football is just around the corner, and with the 2025 season set to kickoff in under two weeks, the preseason AP Poll has officially been revealed. It will come as a surprise to no one that the SEC dominated the rankings with 10 teams making the Top 25, including the preseason No. 1 team, the Texas Longhorns.

It also won't come as a surprise to anyone that's paid attention to the schedule awaiting Mississippi State football to see that the preseason rankings are littered with teams set to battle the Bulldogs this fall. Specifically, State will take on seven teams ranked in the preseason Top 25, those being No. 1 Texas, No. 5 Georgia, No. 11 Arizona State, No. 15 Florida, No. 19 Texas A&M, No. 21 Ole Miss, and No. 24 Tennessee.

With seven preseason AP Top 25 opponents on the schedule, Mississippi State is tied for the most in the country along with Florida, LSU, and Oklahoma.

For the Gators, Tigers, and Sooners, they themselves are preseason Top 25 teams, so while their schedules are daunting, there's an expectation that they'll be good enough to compete against that slate. For the Bulldogs, on the other hand, they not only aren't ranked (or even receiving votes), they're largely expected to finish last in the SEC, meaning their chances of managing a brutal slate seem much more slim.

Preseason AP Top 25 paints harsh reality for Mississippi State Bulldogs

After going 2-10 in 2024, Bulldog fans are desperate to see significant improvement out of their squad this season. And given the overhaul to the roster in the offseason and influx of talent to Starkville, it's fair to think that Mississippi State will be a much better team in 2025.

Unfortunately, their schedule might limit how big an improvement we see in the win column.

SEC schedules are always tough, but State's 2025 slate is particularly vicious. The Bulldogs will play four teams that reached the College Football Playoff last season plus an Ole Miss squad that was just outside the field. Florida and Texas A&M each enter this year with incredibly high expectations.

MSU isn't just facing good teams. They're facing several that could easily find themselves in the Playoff come December, some of whom are among the favorites to win the national title. On the flipside, there are very few bad or even middling teams on the schedule.

This is all to say that even the Bulldogs are much improved, the odds aren't high that they're improved to the point of being able to realistically compete against the bulk of their 2025 opponents. Not many games look winnable on paper.

Now that, of course, is based purely on preseason expectations that could certainly prove to be off-base. Some of those ranked teams may prove wildly overrated, and MSU might make a massive leap forward. If that's the case, the Bulldogs could wind up with a much better record than anticipated.

But going off what we know of these teams at the present, Mississippi State likely has a tough road ahead of them. And with that in mind, there's a reality where Jeff Lebby's team makes notable strides in terms of performance but don't see that reflected in their final record. State fans need to keep that in mind when evaluating the program's direction this season.