Takeaways as Big Ten, SEC dominate recent college football top 25 rankings
Takeaways as Big Ten, SEC dominate recent college football top 25 rankings
While it is only May, top 25 rankings are coming in bunches as the summertime anticipation for college football builds with each passing day. With kickoff approaching, albeit slowly, there are early signs of life as to what teams may be good, who has the talent, and who has question marks remaining.
Ari Wasserman of On3 is one of the most recent top 25 rankings to drop, and his rankings have the usual suspects at the top who are expected to be College Football Playoff contenders. While he has those teams, he also has some exclusions of teams that raise some eyebrows.
As fans know, the top 25 is subject to being completely upended each year. One team will plummet from the top 10 into the unranked irrelevancy, while a sleeper team that no one is discussing will make a charge and become a household name.
With his rankings solely featuring power conference teams, here are the biggest takeaways from the rankings.
Big Ten and SEC reign supreme
It is clear who the kings of college football are. The Big Ten and the SEC boast the most talent across the college football landscape, as evidenced in these rankings. The SEC makes up 11 of the top 25, with four of the top 10 teams.
The Big Ten is represented by five teams and also has four of the top 10. The two power conferences combine for 15 of the top 25 and eight of the top 10 teams.
Big 12 disrespect
The Big 12 is getting no respect in these rankings. The first Big 12 team does not come until Arizona State at No. 12. After that, the conference picks up some steam with Texas Tech at No. 16 and Kansas State at No. 23.
The conference sent one team to the college football playoff last year, and early rankings point to the belief that the conference champion is going to be the sole representative once again.
Who's missing?
These top 25 rankings include a few curious exclusions from some teams that had excellent years last year, but may be due for regression in 2025.
The first exclusion is the Indiana Hoosiers, led by head coach Curt Cignetti. After becoming America's darling in 2024 with a run to the College Football Playoff, Indiana may come back to reality in a tough 2025.
Another exclusion, and continued disrespect to the Big 12, is Iowa State. The Cyclones hit the 11-win mark last year and return Rocco Becht, a trendy candidate as a top quarterback in the conference. Iowa State is unranked in these rankings, but remains lurking.
No Group of Five love
Wasserman's rankings include an exclusion that is not just a team or a conference, but an entire collection of conferences. The entire Group of Five is excluded from these rankings as all 25 spots belong to the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame.
While the comparisons of the teams involved are different, the odds of the top 25 not including any are minuscule. The final College Football Playoff rankings of 2024 included four Group of Five teams with representation from the Mountain West and American.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
TruGolf to Participate in the '2025 Virtual Tech Conference: Discover the Innovations Reshaping Tomorrow' Conference Presented by Maxim Group LLC on Wednesday, June 4th at 3:00 PM EDT - (Updated)
Salt Lake City, Utah, June 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TruGolf Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRUG), a leading golf technology company, announced today that Brenner Adams, TruGolf's Chief Growth Officer will present at the '2025 Virtual Tech Conference: Discover the Innovations Reshaping Tomorrow,' presented by Maxim Group LLC, tomorrow, June 4th at 3:00 PM EDT. The Conference will be live on M-Vest. To attend, follow this link to register for this virtual event. About TruGolf Holdings TruGolf is a golf technology company, committed to making golf, easy. From innovative uses for AI to build content and enhance its image and spatial analysis, to gamified golf improvement plans, TruGolf is an industry leader in the growing technological revolution in the sport of golf. Since its founding, TruGolf has redefined what is possible in golf through technology. TruGolf's suite of Hardware, Software, and Web Products make it easier to Play, Improve, and Enjoy the game of golf. Forward-Looking Statements Some of the statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, whether the Company's compliance plan will be accepted by Nasdaq and the Company's expected future cash needs. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may prove to have been materially different from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''anticipates,'' ''expects,'' ''plans,'' ''projects,'' ''intends,'' ''potential,'' ''may,'' ''could,'' ''might,'' ''will,'' ''should,'' ''approximately'' or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Any forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of its date. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after its date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. More detailed information about the risks and uncertainties affecting the Company is contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website, For more information about our products and upcoming innovations, please visit Media Contacts: TruGolf: Michael Bacal: Phone: 917-886-9071; mbacal@ Web: LinkedIn: @TruGolf
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Where Oregon ranks in odds to win the title
Where Oregon ranks in odds to win the title The college football landscape is evolving rapidly as the sport undergoes multiple seismic changes simultaneously. Name, image and likeness licensing, the transfer portal and new player eligibility rules make the sport increasingly more complex to understand. ESPN created the Football Power Index (FPI) to try to quantify the changes and make them understandable for the average fan. The site ranked teams using a number of categories such as their odds to make the playoffs, records for the season and even national championship odds. The site listed 20 teams, but here are the 15 with a real chance to win the title: No. 15 – Michigan Wolverines FPI Rank: 14.6 Projected Wins: 8.4 Championship %: 1% Michigan's quarterback situation will make it tough to win a national championship, but there is always a chance when you sport one of the best defenses in the country. No. 14 - Auburn Tigers FPI Rank: 14.8 Projected Wins: 7.5 Championship %: 1.1% The Tigers have a long way to go to reach contender status, but ESPN gives them long-shot odds of winning the title. No. 13 - Ole Miss Rebels FPI Rank: 15.9 Projected Wins: 8.3 Championship %: 1.5% Ole Miss can certainly hang with the heavy hitters, given they beat the Georgia Bulldogs last year. If the Rebels can refrain from playing down to opponents, a deep playoff run is on the table. No. 12 - LSU Tigers FPI Rank: 17.1 Projected Wins: 7.9 Championship %: 1.8% ESPN doesn't expect LSU to have the best chance, but it has a consensus top-10 pick, quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who makes a national championship a possibility. FPI Rank: 17.9 Projected Wins: 8.1 Championship %: 2.1% The Aggies had a chance to make the College Football Playoffs before dropping the final three games of last season. If they can finish strongly this year, there is a real possibility they can compete for the title. No. 10 - Tennessee Volunteers FPI Rank: 17.4 Projected Wins: 8.7 Championship %: 2.3% After a sudden and controversial exit by Nico Iamaleava, the Volunteers are scrambling to put a plan in place for the quarterback position. That inevitably will spark a regression this year. No. 9 - Notre Dame Fighting Irish FPI Rank: 18.1 Projected Wins: 9.3 Championship %: 2.4% ESPN projects last season's national championship runner-up to have a massive slide because there still is no solid plan at quarterback despite an elite defense. No. 8 - Miami Hurricanes FPI Rank: 17.5 Projected Wins: 9.7 Championship %: 3.2% Last year's starting quarterback, Cam Ward, was the first pick in the NFL draft, so there could be some natural slippage in Miami with a lower caliber player under center. No. 7 - Clemson Tigers FPI Rank: 17.3 Projected Wins: 9.7 Championship %: 3.8% Once considered a college football juggernaut, Dabo Swinney attempts to lead Clemson to its first College Football Playoff since 2020. No. 6 - Oregon Ducks FPI Rank: 20.5 Projected Wins: 10 Championship %: 4.8% Coach Dan Lanning brought his team all the way to the Rose Bowl last year, but extreme roster turnover will make it difficult for Oregon to reach those heights again. No. 5 - Penn State Nittany Lions FPI Rank: 21.5 Projected Wins: 10.2 Championship %: 7.6% After an impressive first year under a new offensive coordinator, the Penn State offense is primed to take another step to complement its championship level defense. No. 4 - Alabama Crimson Tide FPI Rank: 24.2 Projected Wins: 9.6 Championship %: 10.4% A team with an NFL pipeline as strong as Alabama is always replenishing its stockpile of talent, and ESPN projects this year to be no different. No. 3 - Ohio State Buckeyes FPI Rank: 23.8 Projected Wins: 10.4 Championship %: 11.6% The Buckeyes have the third-best championship odds and would likely be higher had they not lost their starting quarterback to the NFL. No. 2 - Georgia Bulldogs FPI Rank: 26.6 Projected Wins: 10.1 Championship %: 17.5% Georgia consistently has an elite defense as well as one of the best coaches of the era. That stamps them as perennial contenders. No. 1 - Texas Longhorns FPI Rank: 28.5 Projected Wins: 10.4 Championship %: 22.2% Texas has one of the top quarterbacks in the nation, Arch Manning, to go along with a loaded roster, so it is no surprise the Longhorns have the best championship odds. Contact/Follow @Ducks_Wire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes and opinions.
Dominion Post
3 hours ago
- Dominion Post
Rodriguez's one transfer portal period a consensus among Big 12 coaches
West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez was vocal this spring about his problems with the NCAA and the current state of college football. His biggest issue was with the transfer portal, and how there were two openings, with one in the winter and the other in the spring. Rodriguez wants to adopt a professional model, like Bill Belichick's model, with one portal window being like free agency and recruiting being the draft. 'It kind of sucks that we have to do so much roster movement, management, whatever you want to call it in April,' Rodriguez said early this spring. 'I guess I am complaining. It's kind of a new thing in college football. It's not smart. It's not right. It's not organized correctly.' Rodriguez wants one portal period. His argument is that he'll coach a player all spring, and then after he's spent all his time and effort developing the player, he can just jump in the portal and play against him in the fall. 'I mean, how ridiculous is that?' Rodriguez said in March. 'There's another portal thing coming up in a couple of weeks… I wasted all my time coaching this guy, getting him ready, and then he's getting a paycheck to go somewhere else.' Rodriguez isn't the only coach in college football who sees this as an issue. Last week, the Big 12 coaches, athletic directors, and commissioner Brett Yormark met to talk about the current state of the sport and voiced their complaints. Thursday, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham and Kansas coach Lance Leipold took to the podium, answering questions about what they'd like to see for the future of college football, representing the rest of the Big 12 coaches. The consensus for the portal was that the Big 12 coaches agree with Rodriguez and want one portal period. 'As coaches, we unanimously support one portal window, and that is in January,' Leipold said. 'That's what we'd like.' Currently, there's a portal period in December and another in April, so the January window won't be a plug-and-play option. It won't just replace one of the current windows while getting rid of the other. But, there's reasoning behind why the coaches want January to be when the spring portal falls. 'It's a tough thing with calendars right now and where it goes,' Leipold said ' It's a chance to get your team settled. You're signing most of your guys in December. You're going to know what your roster will be like to start the second semester, and you have the opportunity to work and develop, build those relationships, evaluate your team, and get ready for the next season.' A January portal gets rid of the awkward conversations a player and coach have in December when he's on the roster of a College Football Playoff team making a run for the national championship, and in the middle, the player has to decide to whether to stay for the betterment of the team or leave to better his career. It also removes a coach coaching a player all spring, just for them to leave at the end. It'll be interesting to see how January works, though. The December portal was created because the winter semester ends in early December and starts at the beginning of January. So, players have time to switch schools during the break. The portal in January could get dicey with many schools starting the second semester in early January. The National Championship game for 2026 is scheduled for January 19, which is deep into January, so will it be after? Now, it's almost February at that point. There hasn't been a change, yet, on the portal because of issues like these, but it's known that the Big 12 coaches want it to change, so a switch could be coming in the future. 'I think the people in charge see that you can't have this much roster movement and turnover and change in April and May,' Rodriguez said. 'It's ridiculous.'
