2025 Polls and Rankings



For comparison...

Pick Six Previews:
1 Penn St
2 Texas
3 Ohio St
4 Bama
5 UGA
6 Clemson
7 Oregon
8 ND
9 Miami
10 LSU
11 ASU
12 A&M
13 Florida
14 OU
15 USC
16 Texas Tech
17 Baylor
18 Mich
19 Ole Miss
20 Auburn
21 Tenn
22 Utah
23 IU
24 TCU
25 KSU

Athlon
  1. Texas
  2. Penn State
  3. Ohio State
  4. Georgia
  5. Clemson
  6. Notre Dame
  7. LSU
  8. Alabama
  9. Oregon
  10. Miami
  11. Florida
  12. South Carolina
  13. Kansas State
  14. Arizona State
  15. Michigan
  16. Indiana
  17. Illinois
  18. Ole Miss
  19. Texas A&M
  20. Oklahoma
  21. Tennessee
  22. Texas Tech
  23. Iowa State
  24. SMU
  25. Boise State

Phil Steele:
1. Penn State
2. Notre Dame
3. Texas
4. Alabama
5. Ohio State
6. Clemson
7. Georgia
8. Oklahoma
9. Texas A&M
10. Florida
11. LSU
12. Michigan
13. Oregon
14. Miami
15. Arizona State
16. Indiana
17. Illinois
18. Baylor
19. Utah
20. Tennessee
21. USC
22. Ole Miss
23. SMU
24. Auburn
25. Texas Tech

Number of SEC teams in top 25:
Pick Six: 10
Athlon: 9
Phil Steele: 11
FPI: 12

Number of SEC teams in top 10:
Pick Six: 4
Athlon: 4
Phil Steele: 6
FPI: 6
 
Found an analysis of the update on Reddit.

Conference Average Rank Change
Sun Belt 3.5
Big 12 3.06
Big Ten 1.56
Mountain West 0.17
SEC -.044
Ind -0.5
MAC -0.85
American -1.14
CUSA -1.92
Pac-12 -2
ACC -3.88

ACC got hammered in the update, but it wasn't the SEC that benefited. Also note that ESPN owns the ACC Network. And BYU lost their starting QB and went up seven spots...
 
Preseason polls are sort of lame, but I get it-we got to have something to talk about.

Updating preseason polls when a single game hasn't been played yet...priceless.
It absolutely ticks me off when the voters don't have a lot of volatility with preseason rankings for the first month and a half of the season. Preseason rankings are mostly built on a foundation of nothing. Returning starters, recruiting rankings, and last season's results. "Outhouse Wallpaper" - Alvin Valkenheiser
 
It absolutely ticks me off when the voters don't have a lot of volatility with preseason rankings for the first month and a half of the season. Preseason rankings are mostly built on a foundation of nothing. Returning starters, recruiting rankings, and last season's results. "Outhouse Wallpaper" - Alvin Valkenheiser
I think for the top tier teams they are somewhat accurate but beyond that, they are pretty worthless. I think the thing that bothers me the most is they use a teams strength of schedule to predict how good they will be. While it might give insight on probability of number of wins, it isn't a measure of how good a team actually is.
 
Well, to play Devil's Advocate, some pollsters do analyze goings on in practices, transfer portal, player/team health, arrests, wanderings, catatonic binge TV streamings, hotdog eating contests, etc. I mean, give 'em that.
Very true... but they are adjusting generally guessed rankings based on estimated impacts of the things you mention. In the end, still mildly educated guesses outside the top few teams.
 
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