The first AP poll of the 2026 college football season was released this week and in a follow-up to those rankings, a different kind of metric was revealed: The “AP Poll Voters’ Most Overrated Preseason College Football Teams.”
Brett McMurphy of On3 Sports was the brain behind that idea and on Tuesday he shared his list, which quickly drew plenty of criticism. Taking the top billing are the Auburn Tigers, one of 10 SEC teams to make the list of 25.
LSU, USC, Clemson and Wisconsin were ranked two through five. FSU, Texas A&M, Oregon, Oklahoma and Michigan rounded out the top 10. Alabama came in 11th, Georgia was 15th and Ohio State was 24th.
Confusion in the Rankings
College football fans had a hard time reconciling this list. Many pointed to solid data they could use to measure it and still found flaws in the rankings:
“Not sure how Alabama is 11th most overrated They only averaged 2.1 spots below their pre-season ranking in the final ranking. +3 natties,” one user on X pointed out.
“So you have 3 teams that have won at least 2 titles during this span in the top 15. Clemson, Bama, and Georgia lmao delete this,” another remarked.
“How they put Arkansas on here and not someone like Missouri who is in the preseason top 25 but has no chance of being there when the season ends?” argued a third.
“Auburn has been preseason ranked just 6 times in this 12 year span, never higher than 5th. Haven’t been preseason ranked since 2020. 2017 they were ranked 12th and went to the SECCG. Sure, definitely deserve the 1 spot lol, get those engagements so you can pay your staff.”
“Unless I’m mistaken: 2 nattys, 4 natty appearances, 7 playoff appearances, and 8 conference titles since 2014 for Clemson. Bait used to be believable. If this were most overrated teams since 2020, sure, but it’s not.”
It’s a bit of a weird list to be sure. Then again, one of the most arbitrary ways to rank players in college football is “overrated vs. underrated.”
