I agree but it would certainly be nice to not have ratings until the College Football playoffs come out in October. You have such a disadvantage to all of the SEC and B10 schools who also get loaded in the preseason Top 25. 12 of the Top 25 AP preseason rankings were not ranked at the end of the season. As usual, the SEC was over rated which they always are. And the only reason the Top Ten looks ok for the SEC is they have Alabama ranked 9 with 4 losses...what a joke. The next 4 loss team is ranked 17.
Too much money involver to ever do either.
| Conference | Preseason Top 10 | Final Top 10 | Preseason Top 25 | Final Top 25 |
| SEC | 4 | 4 | 10 | 7 |
| B10 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| B12 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| ACC | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Grp 6/Ind. | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Preseason Rank | Team | Final Rankings | Final Record |
| 20 | Indiana | 1 | 16-0 |
| 10 | Miami | 2 | 13-3 |
| 21 | Ole Miss | 3 | 13-2 |
| 7 | Oregon | 4 | 13-2 |
| 3 | Ohio State | 5 | 12-2 |
| 5 | Georgia | 6 | 12-2 |
| 24 | Texas Tech | 7 | 12-2 |
| 19 | Texas A&M | 8 | 11-2 |
| 8 | Alabama | 9 | 11-4 |
| 6 | Notre Dame | 10 | 10-2 |
| NR | BYU | 11 | 12-2 |
| 1 | Texas | 12 | 10-3 |
| 18 | Oklahoma | 13 | 10-3 |
| NR | Utah | 14 | 11-2 |
| NR | Vanderbilt | 15 | 10-3 |
| NR | Virginia | 16 | 11-3 |
| NR | Iowa | 17 | 9-4 |
| NR | Tulane | 18 | 11-3 |
| NR | James Madison | 19 | 12-2 |
| NR | USC | 20 | 9-4 |
| 14 | Michigan | 21 | 9-4 |
| NR | Houston | 22 | 10-3 |
| NR | Navy | 23 | 11-2 |
| NR | North Texas | 24 | 12-2 |
| NR | TCU | 25 | 9-4 |
| 2 | Penn State | NR | |
| 4 | Clemson | NR | |
| 9 | LSU | NR | |
| 11 | Arizona State | NR | |
| 12 | Illinois | NR | |
| 13 | South Carolina | NR | |
| 15 | Florida | NR | |
| 16 | SMU | NR | |
| 17 | Kansas St. | NR | |
| 22 | Iowa State | NR | |
| 23 | Tennesse | NR | |
| 25 | Boise State | NR |
Whose strength of schedule? Would we use the same people that picked 5 Sec Teams in the playoffs, picked JMU & Tulane to be in yet screwed BYU and ND? 60% of the expert's bracket was total BS but we'd let those same "strength of Sec schedule" people to pick again?
GT should be ranked ahead of 4-5 of those teams at the bottom of that list.
The Colorado and Tennessee games will be huge for GT next season. Win both and we are viewed as a good team. Lose one or both and it's just another meh view of GT.
I may be in the minority here, but I think SOS is a horrible metric. How can you determine the best teams by using a metric that is defined by who played the best teams?
You’re not alone. SOS is based on perception that is ultimately based on pre-season polls which is also called “gossip” or “personal opinion”. No sport other than D1 college football operates on a bed of gossip to start a season. And “best team” is a myth until January yet we are already being told in February that teams like Miami, Ohio St, and UGA are the best for a season 7 months away. It’s just bizzaro world and fans are lemmings who take part. All we can do is continue with the charade until the playoffs expand and we get auto bids like every other sport. At which point all that will matter is achieving a bid. The polls and SOS will then simply go away because if you are the 3rd place team in the BIG South Division no one will care about SOS just like no one cares in other sports.
Thank you! IMPO, SoS is largely a fool’s errand using HtH as it is inherently circular. Perhaps if you perhaps use efficiency metrics apart from HtH you can approximate a valid and reliable result. However, efficiency metrics seem to me to have a lot of built in noise due to the number of variables involved. How many variables does offensive efficiency include, or latent variables missed? It’s one thing to crank out numbers to evaluate a team’s performance, but to choose between teams for the CFP? I dunno.
That schedule is simply absurd at best!
I completely agree. They need to go to 16 teams, eliminate conference championships and get the championship back to no later than Mid-January.
Speaking of absurd
11-1 at least. Take away the ACC games and they would have a hard time filling out a schedule. Especially late in the season as conferences heat up. November 7 is the game to watch. Pencil it in as Gameday.Speaking of absurd
2026 Notre Dame Football Schedule | FBSchedules.com
View the 2026 Notre Dame Football Schedule at FBSchedules.com. The Fighting Irish football schedule includes opponents, date, time, and TV.fbschedules.com
Does anyone know how long the inbred relationship is contractually with ND and the ACC
Most likely tied to the GOR agreement since the other sports are included as full ACC members. Swofford got totally bamboozled didn’t he?
Worst negotiator of all time. Conference had complete leverage during Covid and failed to use it!
I think they signed on for the GOR which admittedly doesn't mean much anymore..so was 2036. However they are obviously looking to have more control over which 5 ACC opponents they have scheduled in the future. https://www.si.com/college/notredame/football/notre-dame-acc-partnership-changes With viewership being so important, this would definitely be an advantage for Miami, Clemson and FSU. However other than the 12 year Clemson/Notre Dame arrangement, I haven't heard anything else. It has also not been established that the Clemson/Notre Dame schedule would be considered one of the five ACC opponents Notre Dame is supposed to schedule each year.
Thanks for that information Bill!