Let the madness begin! For the 21st straight year we have a preseason favorite as JCGridiron.com releases its first set of rankings for the upcoming season. Unlike last year when some factors made us push out the preseason rankings a bit late, we are back to our week of July 4 release, which had become a tradition since 2005.

Over 20 years, JCGridiron has had 15 individual champions and five split titles, with 14 different programs laying claim as national champs. Hutchinson and San Mateo became the fifth split title in 2024, which was the second time in three years that San Mateo had gained at least a share of the title and the second time in five years for Hutchinson.

Some might ask; how are the rankings formulated or how does a program get a high ranking? Very good questions.

During the spring, JCGridiron solicits the coaches in an attempt to locate the top talent for the Rivals (now On3/Rivals) database. If coaches do not respond, they are likely not to get as high of a ranking as they would expect. The bottom line is, if we don’t know what you have it’s hard for us to give you a high ranking. Fortunately, most of the power programs do respond because they understand the importance of promoting their players and getting them in the database.

Another big factor in recent years is being good at key positions. For instance, it’s very difficult to win a national title in this era without a topflight quarterback in the year 2025. Look at all of the title winning teams and most of them had winners under center. Every now and then a program will win with defense, but it’s getting rarer every season.

Unlike some of the other internet trolls or publications producing preseason forecasts, JCGridiron is not afraid to take risks when it comes to its Preseason Dirty 30 Rankings. We don’t just anoint last year’s champion as the frontrunner. That’s lazy and lacks insight. We take chances based on our intel, which makes things a bit more interesting and promotes potential programs ready to make a big jump. With a ton of coaching changes every year, you never know what kind of impact a new coaching staff can have.

Having said all of that, it’s time to start the madness for 2025. Here is a glimpse of the top five teams in the rankings followed by the complete JCGridiron Dirty 30 Preseason Rankings and Dirty 30 Rankings history.

The folks at Hutchinson open the season with a bullseye on their backs as the top-ranked team in the Dirty 30 Rankings. The Blue Dragons have become one of the power programs in the country over the past five seasons and there shouldn’t be much of a drop-off in 2025, if any at all. Hutchinson has a lot of pieces to replace on the offensive side of the ball, but the defense should be vicious out of the gate. Despite being a little inexperienced at quarterback, the Blue Dragons have a lot of playmakers ready to make the transition seamless.

Iowa Western is 50-7 over the past five seasons and has been one of the power programs for close to 15 years. The Reivers came within an eyelash of winning a fourth national title a season ago before falling to Hutchinson in the NJCAA title game. Much like Hutch, the Reivers are going to have to reload at quarterback but the pieces around the new slinger look talented. The defense returns a number of players that played significantly in 2024, and Iowa Western has a knack of landing a few key bouncebacks every offseason.

San Mateo has taken over as the dominant program out west. The Bulldogs have won 57 of their last 64 games over the past five seasons, winning at least a share of two JCGridiron Dirty 30 national titles in the past three seasons. Much like the two teams in front of them, San Mateo has to replace an experienced quarterback. The Bulldogs are always good in the trenches and have a lot of guys up front that gained valuable experience last season. The wide receiver corps could be amongst the best in the nation.

Like I said a few paragraphs earlier, JCGridiron is not afraid to take chances. Last season Garden City forfeited six games to finish 1-10 and quickly made a coaching change during the offseason. The Broncbusters brought in Kyoshi Harris, who understands the landscape and has quickly loaded the cupboards with talent. The former recruiting coordinator at Boise State and head coach at Independence has a roster full of potential super stars, now he has the task of getting them working in concert for the name on the front of the jersey rather than the one on the back. The last time we made a prediction this bold was when Tom Craft arrived at Riverside City College. The previous season (2009) RCC had finished 1-9, and Craft quickly got them back on track with a 10-1 season in his first season playing in the lower-tier ranks.

The race for dominance in Southern California was owned by Riverside City for a half decade until last season when Mt. San Antonio finally broke through and beat the Tigers in the SoCal Finals. With RCC making a change at coach after the retirement of Tom Craft, we are picking Mt. SAC as the early favorites to repeat in Southern California, but it’s by a razor thin margin. The Mounties are always tough in the trenches and although they lost their starting quarterback have managed to pick up a couple of guys from other colleges in the area for a quick infusion of experience under center. The middle of the field on defense at linebacker looks very solid, but Mt. SAC lost close to 30 guys to four-year schools due to graduation and signings. We see as many as 7-8 squads that could compete for the Southern California title in 2025.