Jon Joseph   Moderator  No. 1 Share Posted Wednesday at 07:15 PM  ESPN has released the first iteration of its Football Power Index (FPI).   When it comes to college football, the World Wide Leader is as objective as can be, right?  Pay no attention to Herbie and other ESPN talking heads, beefing about Indiana and SMU instead of 3-loss Bama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina being in the playoff field. Our FPI formula proves that this criticism was justified.  What's that? 3-loss Illinois defeated South Carolina, and 4-loss Michigan defeated Bama in the postseason? You cannot expect mighty SEC teams to give a whit about games against inferior opponents.   College Football Rankings: ESPN reveals first FPI Top 25 for 2025 season - On3 WWW.ON3.COM .  This ranking has 13 of the SEC's 16 teams, 81.25%, in the Top 25. This should DQ ESPN from any comment or take on the B1G's 4-4-2-2-1-3 suggested PO format being 'greedy' instead of the far more 'righteous' 5-11 model.  Before adjusting for two B12 teams and a G6 representative, using this ranking and a 5/11 model, five highest ranked conference champs and 11 at-large teams, six SEC teams would be in a 16-team playoff field.  Greg Sankey didn't notice this before last week's meetings in Florida, where SEC coaches enlightened their ADs and Greg, right?  Three of the six B1G teams ranked, 33.33% of the conference, Ohio State, Penn State, and OBD, would be in a 5/11 field. How kind of the FPI.  The 11/5 format to which the SEC has seemingly pivoted after whining that the PO committee doesn't know what it's doing, now makes perfect dollars and cents.  Oh, and the SEC doesn't need to play nine conference games because an eight-game gauntlet in the SEC, when it comes to the quality of the competition, is beyond BRUTAL!  Auburn is the 14th-best team in the nation? These Tigers are Not Ranked in the majority of preseason polls. Ditto, 22nd-ranked Arkansas. Oklahoma at 16? Texas A&M at No. 8!  Holy Cowbells, Mississippi State isn't ranked? Vandy and Kentucky are missing? CALL PAWALLL!  How about Miami ranked No. 9 and Clemson ranked No. 11? Add SMU, and the ACC has three teams ranked. This may be the proper number, but the Canes over the Dabos?  B12 Commissioner Brett Yormark has to love these rankings, right? The highest-ranked B12 team is Kansas State at No. 21. The only other ranked B12 team is ASU at No. 24.  The Chutzpah of these rankings; well, It Just Means More south of the Mason-Dixon line.  I know I'm a B1G whiner, but ESPN, have you no shame?  Oh well, nothing to see here, move right along and make sure that half of your B1G conference teams will have one more loss than half of our conference. But three 3-losses in the SEC are better than two in the B1G. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer   Administrator  No. 2 Share Posted Wednesday at 08:06 PM And they put USC at 19th?   1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A   Moderator  No. 3 Share Posted Wednesday at 09:02 PM On 6/4/2025 at 12:15 PM, Jon Joseph said: but ESPN, have you no shame? Webster's definition of a rhetorical question! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woundedknees    No. 4 Share Posted Wednesday at 09:26 PM USC NEEDS their massive NIL expenditures to justify that ranking... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph   Author Moderator  No. 5 Share Posted Wednesday at 09:50 PM  The Sporting News update 2025 top 25 uses its own and eleven other sites' rankings to come up with a composite top 25.   Composite college football top 25 rankings for 2025: Texas, Ohio State, Penn State are consensus top teams WWW.SPORTINGNEWS.COM The consensus top two teams will square off in Week 1 when Texas visits Ohio State.  The FPI software is hard-wired in favor of the SEC. SP+ is somewhat, but not much, more objective. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck   Moderator  No. 6 Share Posted Wednesday at 11:01 PM Did I just get really old? It used to be that I actually paid attention to the "Way Too Early" rankings, and it's still silly to even consider rankings before Week 6 and now? What good does, did, being No.1 all season mean anyway? Recruiting rankings at best are just counting up stars. Hurry up, Aug.30! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph   Author Moderator  No. 7 Share Posted Wednesday at 11:45 PM  30 Duck, the answer to your first above interrogatory, my friend, is 'YES! You have my sincere empathy.  FWIW - Using the 2025-26 12-team format, here is the projected FPI PO field.  1. Texas vs 9. Miami at 8. Texas A&M  4. Ohio State vs. 12. G6 at 5. Penn State  2. Georgia vs. 10. Tennessee at 7. Notre Dame  3. Alabama vs. 11. Kansas State at 6. OREGON  5 SEC/ 3 B1G/ 1 ACC/ 1 B12/ 1 Independent/ 1 G6  1st 2 out - 11 Clemson and 12 LSU.  Show $ankey the $$$$$. 2nd round games would see one B1G team knocked out in the Rose Bowl.  HECK YES! Come on 8/30! Go Away FPI!   Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Ducky    No. 8 Share Posted 20 hours ago Too bad some of usucs players will be transferring out in a couple years or less. Probably to Eugene.  Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie    No. 9 Share Posted 19 hours ago Just because higher rankings before the season for the sec means that each win within the conference means higher rankings overall, and each loss with in the conference isn't "so bad" because, well, it was to a highly-ranked team, doesn't really affect anything, right? 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
