LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
2025 College Football Rankings - ESPN
Find the 2025 NCAAF rankings on ESPN, including the Coaches and AP poll for the top 25 NCAAF teams.
Updated college football rankings 9/2/2025
- Thread starter LudicrousSpeedGO!
- Start date
Sheriff Coffee
Well-known member
Pretty meaningless with the expanded playoffs. But it is great for watercooler conversations.
So in week 1, the #3 team beats the #1 team at home by a touchdown. The #3 team then moves to #1 and the #1 team moves to #7.
So, if these were the actual rankings heading into week 1, then the #1 team would have beaten the #7 team at home by only a touchdown. The #1 team would have then fallen to #3 in the rankings and the #7 team would have climbed up to #4. Let that sink in.
So, if these were the actual rankings heading into week 1, then the #1 team would have beaten the #7 team at home by only a touchdown. The #1 team would have then fallen to #3 in the rankings and the #7 team would have climbed up to #4. Let that sink in.
Bama didn't fall far enough imo.
FSU jumped too much in the AP; Coaches probably have them right.
Ole Miss has the biggest discrepancy (14 vs 20) poll vs poll.
Based on the pt totals, the AP feels strongly about 9 teams, Coaches about 7. Sort of a meaningless metric, but a loss by those teams won't fall very far.
Shocked we retained any 1st place votes, but we can change that in the White Out.
FSU jumped too much in the AP; Coaches probably have them right.
Ole Miss has the biggest discrepancy (14 vs 20) poll vs poll.
Based on the pt totals, the AP feels strongly about 9 teams, Coaches about 7. Sort of a meaningless metric, but a loss by those teams won't fall very far.
Shocked we retained any 1st place votes, but we can change that in the White Out.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
One thing I find interesting. The SEC had 2 of their 4 top 10 ranked teams lose, one to an unranked team that was 2-10 last year. This week, they still have 4 top 10 teams and 10 of the top 25. The primary teams that benefitted from SEC losses were SEC teams with LSU and S.Car benefitting the most (Miami did too and they beat a top 10 team).
S.Car moved up 3 spots to the top 10 for beating a team that was 6-7 and unranked last year by 13 points. Michigan was dropped a spot for beating a team that was 5-7 last year by 17 points. Illinois beat a lesser nobody 52-3 and moved up only 1 spot getting leap frogged by S.Car who had that impressive 13 point win over a 2024 6-7 Virginia Tech. Florida also moved up 2 spots leapfrogging Michigan for a 55-0 win over Long Island which I did not know had a football program but were 4-8 in FCS level play last year.
The AP has a serious SEC bias.
Oddly Iowa St jumped 6 spots by beating South Dakota by 1 less point than Illinois (moved up 1 and was leapfrogged by S.Car) had beaten Western Illinois. Somehow SMU dropped a spot with a 30 point win while being leapfrogged from way back by Iowa St.
So in week 1, the #3 team beats the #1 team at home by a touchdown. The #3 team then moves to #1 and the #1 team moves to #7.
So, if these were the actual rankings heading into week 1, then the #1 team would have beaten the #7 team at home by only a touchdown. The #1 team would have then fallen to #3 in the rankings and the #7 team would have climbed up to #4. Let that sink in.
This is why the AP is a joke
The polls didn't have a vote between week 0 and the Tuesday release. Iowa State got credit for beating KState and their week 1 win.
Agree with you on the rest.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
Thanks for pointing that out. I missed that.
RickinDayton
Well-known member
Yep
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
Notre Dame doesn't play this week. But their schedule is laughably bad to the point of 3 losses being an extremely improbable thing. They only play one other ranked team, #19 Texas A&M, in week 3. A&M struggled in week one against inferrior competition. I mean there are middle of the pack power 4 teams on their schedule but no one that is likely to be ranked.
I think if Notre Dame goes 10-2 losing to the only 2 ranked teams that they played, then they are left out. And no championship game to play their way in. That is not a playoff resume.
I think the Irish are under the gun to win the Texas A&M game. If not, they'll have an uphill climb to the playoffs the whole year...though depending on how things break, it's possible they could still make it with two losses.
I do think they're getting somewhat of a bad rap on the schedule. There are no powerhouses (at least on paper) but no automatic wins either (alright, Purdue and Stanford maybe) unlike, say, the SEC where every team gets 2 or 3 walkovers. And the less said about our OOC schedule, the better.
As it is, going into the season, Phil Steele rated Notre Dame's schedule at #21 and SI made it #34...out of 135 or so teams. Opponents Navy and Boise State are both picked to win their conferences. USC is hanging around the top-25 and if things go well, they could easily be ranked when they play the Irish. Pitt, Boston College, and North Carolina State are all supposed to be respectable. And Arkansas in Fayettville is far from a gimme.
But again, they'd be advised to beat the Aggies on September 13...
Boise St losing already hurts them bad. That was the sneaky 2nd to 5th toughest game. It carries some weight. On paper, it was far more tough than their non-Miami ACC slate.
Navy is, well, Navy. Appreciate what they do, but they are never a threat. Even in their best years.
LudicrousSpeedGO!
Well-known member
Agreed and Boise didn't just lose, they were blown out by 4 TDs by a team from the American conference.
Yup, totally fair point about Boise State. South Florida in late August is not the easiest road game in the world but Boise State was a 5-point favorite and definitely didn't play that way.
As for Navy, yes, it's a traditional game for Notre Dame but they haven't lost to the Midshipmen since, what, 1897? I exaggerate a bit. Still, I think Navy is a cut above the kind of walkovers that appear on SEC...and a lot of other...schedules.
My main point is that on paper Notre Dame will play a respectable schedule this year. Not a super-tough schedule...but respectable. In grading the difficulty of it, a lot depends on how some of the potentially decent teams on their slate do...with the rivalry game against USC being at the top of the list.
In any case, I think it's incumbent on the Irish to beat top-20 Texas A&M. If they start off 0-2 against Miami and the Aggies, they're going to be digging themselves a playoff hole.
