The wait is finally over! The preseason AP Top 25 just hit, and the college football world officially kicks into high gear. Just like the Coaches Poll, the SEC is flexing hard, rolling in with seven teams jammed into the top 13. But hold up, the Big Ten is claiming the top two spots with Ohio State at No. 1 and Oregon at No. 2, and they’ve got eight teams overall chilling in the top 22. It sets the whole vibe for the season, but man, do these voters really get it right?
Are These Polls Just Copies of Each Other?
Okay, I gotta ask: what in the world happened to diversity of opinion? You’d think with way more AP voters than coaches, we’d see some wildly different takes, right? Wrong! These preseason AP and Coaches Polls are basically identical twins, or, as the source put it, “about as different as night and later that night.” The exact same teams make up the top ten in both, just with a little reshuffling. Texas flips from 4th in Coaches to 5th in AP. Oklahoma and Ole Miss switch their 9th and 10th spots. The *only* real differences outside of the top ten are Clemson barely making it into the Coaches Poll at 23rd but missing the AP entirely, and Louisville sliding into the AP at 24th while missing the Coaches Poll. That’s it! Twenty-four of the same teams are in both, and 13 are in the exact same spot. It makes you wonder what all the fuss is about.
Voters Are Sleeping on the Little Guys and Overhyping the Big Names
While the big dogs dominate, a few Group of Six teams managed to snag some respect in the AP Poll, which is a small win, I guess. Boise State pulled in 43 votes, technically making them 28th, way higher than their 36th spot in the Coaches Poll. Navy got 10 votes, with Louisiana, New Mexico, and UNLV each nabbing four. James Madison had three, Memphis two, and Liberty, Tulane, and Western Michigan each got a single vote. That’s more love than the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, and Sun Belt got from the Coaches Poll, where only UNLV, with 17 votes, cracked double digits for the Group of Six.
But let’s get real. Where the AP voters *really* lost me is with a couple of teams perched way too high. Ole Miss at No. 9? Come on! They were 10th in the Coaches Poll, and even that felt high. I get it, they remember the CFP Semifinal run, and Trinidad Chambliss is back at quarterback. But without Lane Kiffin calling the shots, and looking at the sheer talent across the league right now, they feel more like a 20-25 range team than a sure-thing top-ten squad. Then there’s SMU at No. 19. Nineteen! They’ve been strong since jumping to the ACC, and they’ve stacked depth and hit the portal hard, but a huge part of their success comes from a ridiculously favorable schedule. They should be way down in the “Other Receiving Votes” category, not sitting pretty in the top 20.
As we stare down the barrel of the 2026 season, these preseason rankings are setting the table. We’ve got to watch those “overrated” teams closely from the jump. Does Ole Miss prove us all wrong without Kiffin? Can SMU really hang with the big boys when the schedule gets real? The preseason chatter is fun, but the real answers are about to explode onto the field.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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