The AP Top 25 poll has come under increasing scrutiny in recent seasons, as college football fans and personalities look deeper into individual voting habits. Many of which often make little to no sense.
Thankfully, the importance of the AP Poll has diminished with the creation of the College Football Playoff selection committee and their top-25, but there’s little doubt that the AP rankings are still used in those deliberations and in other debates. While the committee technically is supposed to evaluate teams based on their own terms, it’s highly unlikely that they don’t use the AP Poll in some capacity, at least in their first set of rankings.
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“Ranked wins” has become a common talking point, particularly among fans, coaches, and administrators of a certain conference. And this week’s poll makes it easy to see why.
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Kamario Taylor No. 1 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs warms up before the game at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss., on Sept. 26, 2026. (Getty Images)
First, the most obvious example: Mississippi State. The Bulldogs entered the week ranked No. 16, moving up eight spots after beating a very questionably ranked Missouri Tigers team. They hosted Alabama in Starkville, an opportunity to show they deserve to be a top-10 team and legitimate College Football Playoff contender.
Instead, the Tide rolled. The final score at 56-23 somehow doesn’t do justice to how thoroughly Alabama dismantled Mississippi State. The Bulldogs had a whopping 70 plays, only gaining 302 total yards for a dismal 4.3 yards per play. Meanwhile, Alabama racked up 483 yards on just 61 plays, for nearly eight yards per play.
The Tide moved the ball into the MSU red zone seven times, scoring touchdowns on all seven tries. They had 12.7 yards per passing attempt, four rushing touchdowns, had eight sacks or tackles for loss, and two deflections. Even with two fumbles lost, they won the turnover battle thanks to forcing four from an overwhelmed Bulldogs offense. It was a demolition.
It’d be reasonable to assume, then, that Mississippi State would drop in the AP Top 25 poll. Teams don’t get humiliated at home and stay put, right? Sure enough, the Bulldogs did drop in the AP Top 25 poll…by one spot. After being thoroughly dismantled at their own stadium, Mississippi State plummeted from No. 16 all the way down to No. 17. No other conference would be given that kind of preferential treatment, and we have the perfect example of that from this week’s poll.
Reece Vander Zee #2 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates after his game winning touchdown catch to beat the Michigan Wolverines 20-19 at Michigan Stadium on September 26, 2026 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) (Gregory Shamus/Getty)
While Alabama-Mississippi State was one of the big games of the weekend on the SEC calendar, Iowa-Ohio State was the signature matchup in the Big Ten.
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Iowa hosted the Buckeyes in Iowa City, entering the week at No. 14 after pulling off a dramatic, walk-off win over Michigan the week prior. Ohio State came in at No. 5, two spots ahead of No. 7 Alabama. While the Buckeyes mostly dominated and the outcome was never really in doubt, the Hawkeyes at least put up a fight.
OSU averaged 6.5 yards per play to Iowa’s 4.5, stifled Iowa’s running attack, and forced two turnovers. Jeremiah Smith was dominant, with 11 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns. Still, the final score was 31-14, a conclusive win for Ohio State, but hardly the embarrassment of Alabama-MSU.
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So Iowa entered the week at No. 14, lost at home to a top-5 team by 17 points. MSU entered the week at No. 16, and got run out of their own stadium 56-23 by the No. 7 team. Which one do you think dropped more spots? To give you a hint, it wasn’t the one with the correct conference patch sewed onto their jersey.
Iowa dropped a whopping six spots, falling all the way to No. 20. Mississippi State dropped one. If you want to know what “protect the SEC” looks like in practice, that’s it. And for the record, ESPN’s own SP+, a computer-driven analytics-based ranking system, has the Bulldogs as the 27th best team in the country.
It’s not just that one example. Ole Miss, whose blowout loss to Florida now looks much worse after the Gators were dominated by a mediocre Missouri team, didn’t budge on their bye week, sitting at No. 9. Missouri jumped up 11 spots after beating Florida, despite their loss to Mississippi State now looking significantly worse. Meanwhile, 5-0 Nebraska, which has dominated against an admittedly easy schedule, is unranked.
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As a Big Ten account on X noted, “Since 2019, 3 Big Ten teams have started their season 5-0 and were unranked: 2019 Minnesota, 2023 Maryland, and now 2026 Nebraska. The last time an SEC team started their season 5-0 and was unranked was Vanderbilt in 1943.”
Cody Nagle from 24/7 Sports posted, “Since 1995, 80 SEC teams have started 5-0. All 80 were ranked in the AP Top 25 entering their next game. Outside the SEC, 44 teams have started 5-0 and been unranked entering their next game.”
Mississippi State is No. 27 in SP+, Nebraska is No. 12. Guess which one is ranked by AP Poll voters?
Head coach Matt Rhule of the Nebraska Cornhuskers leads players onto the field before a game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium on Nov. 22, 2025, in State College, Pa. (Getty Images)
While media members and pro-SEC boosters claim that this deferential, preferential treatment is deserved, there’s little evidence to suggest that’s the case. Big stadiums and full crowds mean nothing when it comes to team quality. Less than nothing. Having a big brand name and a commissioner who spends most of his time making inaccurate arguments on ESPN does not mean anything. Winning “SEC road games” without regard to opponent does not mean anything. Yet that’s precisely what AP voters are using as justification for their rankings. Literally.
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ESPN’s Heather Dinich posted her “rationale” for putting Kentucky at No. 17 on X, “I have Kentucky No. 17 in my top 25. @UKFootball is no. 5 in ESPN strength of record metric. Two road wins vs SEC teams. I rank 25 teams based on what I think the CFP committee would do. And KY would probably be in.”
The “road wins vs SEC teams” are a bad Texas A&M team, and a bad South Carolina team. Which required overtime and a two-point conversion. But when your conference is assumed to have magic powers because of their stadiums and conference logo or something, this is what you get.
Again, the AP Poll, directly, does not determine which teams reach the playoff. But when you have poll voters this overwhelmingly biased towards one conference ranking teams, providing “ranked wins” and “ranked losses” to one conference ahead of others, it’s going to create unrealistic and unsupported narratives around strength of schedule and resume and record that the selection committee can’t ignore.
It’s a joke. But then again, we saw that last year when Alabama got rewarded for being blown out in the SEC Championship game.
