Josh Pate makes the humorous claim in his social media profile that he’s all set to be the future commissioner of college football.
For now, Pate will have to settle for being a college football analyst for ESPN and On3. While that doesn’t qualify him as the commissioner — yet — Pate took the time recently to reveal his way-too-early Top 25 for the 2026 season.
But Pate even sprinkled his wry sense of humor into the Top 25 post, writing: “As future CFB Commissioner I need to be transparent about my early top 25 thoughts.”
And those thoughts will likely raise a future eyebrows in SEC football circles as fans digest the just-completed 2025 season and get ready for spring football. Pate showed a lot of love for the SEC in his early February Top 25 crystal ball, placing 9 teams from the conference in his poll.
After putting Notre Dame at No. 1, Pate started the SEC parade of teams by placing Texas at No. 2, with Arch Manning coming back in 2026 and headlining what promises to be a high-octane offense.
Pate’s SEC roll call resumes at No. 7 with 2-time defending conference champion Georgia. The Bulldogs start a streak of 4 straight SEC teams that round out Pate’s top 10, with Texas A&M at No. 8, followed by Oklahoma at No. 9 and LSU at No. 10.
No, Alabama isn’t in Pate’s way-too-early top 10, with the Crimson Tide being placed just outside that top 10 at No. 13.
Here is Pate’s full Top 25 list, with a few more SEC teams included below Bama:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
