The Big Ten made a lot of bluster at their media days last week. But at least one idea that emerged should have majority support from the college football world.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti continued to push for the automatic qualifier expanded College Football Playoff model in spite of widespread opposition throughout the sport. It was reported later in the week that Petitti is doing so in part due to talks with rights partners about lucrative CFP play-in games.
The automatic qualifier model could do a lot of damage not just to the competitive balance of the sport, but also the entire interest in non-conference games and comparing resumes throughout the season.
But at least on that last part, perhaps there is some common ground that can be found.
ESPN college football reporter Adam Rittenberg noted that several Big Ten coaches and officials at the conference’s media days event in Las Vegas were all for saying sayonara to preseason polls.
This wasn’t among the talking points for Big Ten coaches and officials in Las Vegas, but I brought it up to several and they agreed: The preseason polls should be obliterated. They carry too much meaning and shape debate, overvaluing/undervaluing teams before we know anything.
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) July 26, 2025
From the Big Ten perspective, it makes total sense to get rid of preseason polls because they have traditionally played into the narratives of the SEC’s superiority before a ball is even in play for the season.
Take a look at the 2024 AP preseason rankings. Eight SEC schools made the AP Top 25 with #1 Georgia, #4 Texas, #5 Alabama, #6 Ole Miss, #11 Missouri, #13 LSU, #15 Tennessee, #16 Oklahoma, and #20 Texas A&M all being highly rated entering the campaign.
On the Big Ten side, the conference boasted #2 Ohio State, #3 Oregon, #8 Penn State, #9 Michigan, #23 USC, and #25 Iowa for just six teams.
However, as the season went on the Big Ten proved to be the superior superconference. Four Big Ten teams made the playoff compared to three from the SEC. And the Big Ten was 5-1 against the SEC in bowl games and Ohio State beat both Tennessee and Texas on their way to a national championship. And let’s not forget that Indiana of all schools made the playoff over Alabama and Ole Miss.
But would it be such a shock if there were no preseason rankings and we were allowed to just use the games as they happen to rank teams? The SEC remains undefeated to this day in hypothetical matchups with many conference loyalists preferring to play games in make believe rather than in real life. And the conference has flexed their muscle for years on the talking point of “What would Team X’s record really be playing an SEC schedule?”
But as it turns out, sometimes the preseason rankings do lie. So why trust them? Why use them? What good has a preseason ranking ever done for anybody aside from giving a network a meaningless number next to a team’s name in Week 1? Will the Ohio State-Texas matchup next month lose any importance if we simply waited until after the game to rank them? If anything, waiting to do the rankings until a month into the season may even give us more to debate, not less. And isn’t that every college football fan’s dream?
About Matt Yoder