In his own personal top 5, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit has Ohio State at No. 1. He’s in lockstep with most voters; the unbeaten Buckeyes garnered 60 first-place votes this week to rank No. 1 in the AP poll for the eighth consecutive week.
Depending on how Texas (5-2) closes out the rest of the regular season, that Week 1 win could bolster the Buckeyes’ College Football Playoff résumé. But, during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, Herbstreit said it shouldn’t mean as much as it initially did.
Herbstreit was asked for his take on preseason rankings and how they should (or shouldn’t) impact the CFP selection committee.
Some think the preseason poll should be done away with. Some believe the CFP committee’s approach of waiting to publish a ranking until after a certain number of games have been played is more appropriate. Herbstreit defended the preseason AP poll, at least on its face.
“I’m a fan of preseason rankings,” Herbstreit said. “I’m a Reds fan. Baseball season is typically over for me well before the Fourth of July, so I’m jonesing for some news and some stuff to talk about. If the AP poll comes out in the second or third week of August and gets us to get excited about college football, I personally have no problem with it.”
After opening the season at No. 3, Ohio State knocked off Texas in its first game to grab hold of the top spot. At the time, Texas was the preseason No. 1 team in the country. After losing to Florida on Oct. 4, the Longhorns dropped out of the AP poll entirely.
It wasn’t until their Oct. 11 win over Oklahoma that the Longhorns even picked up a win over another power conference opponent.
With last week’s overtime victory over Kentucky, Texas moved down a spot in the poll. The Longhorns still have games against 3 teams that are currently ranked in the AP top 10. A couple more defeats and the CFP committee might leave the Longhorns out of their ranking entirely.
That hypothetical would beg the question: Should Ohio State get credit for beating a No. 1 team? Or would a team like Texas A&M — or even Alabama — be more deserving of consideration for the top spot?
Heading into Week 9, 2 of the top 4 teams in the preseason poll are unranked. Only 5 of the preseason top 10 are still sitting inside the top 10. And 7 teams that are currently ranked were outside the top 25 to begin the season.
The first CFP rankings of the 2025 season are set to be unveiled on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
