ESPN 2025 preseason poll.
- Thread starter dafarmer
- Start date
Genuine question, were you expecting us to be top 10 preseason?
I wouldn't, mid teens to 20 seems about right.
ESPN and others would have no reason to rank us highly. I wonder though if we don't have a bunch of players and especially coaches who are quietly looking around and thinking, "Holy crap, I'm starting to wonder if maybe we don't have a really, really good bunch of guys here. This team just might surprise everyone."
Again, ESPN should be mandated to put a public disclosure that they own the rights to the SEC and have a vested interest in ranking as many teams as possible to juice their matchups. Every year A&M, Aubrun, and Arkansas get love and are a joke.
The preseason rankings are just recruiting rankings at this point and while I know they will never go away ESPN should be forced to disclose
The preseason rankings are just recruiting rankings at this point and while I know they will never go away ESPN should be forced to disclose
Iowa State isn't a top 10 team on paper to start the season. Losing two of the top 10 receivers in college football stings. While we have solid transfers coming in, it's still a question mark if Becht will be able to throw for as many yards as last year. I certainly think he can, but can completely understand why the media is questioning it. My guess is Iowa State ends up around 17 or 18 preseason and hopefully it's a very good season.
Prefer the Cyclones to be the underdog
I get the sentiment, but there are inherent advantages to starting the season being ranked as high as possible. There are too many (most) of the voters on the polls who simply move teams on their ballot from the previous poll based on that week's wins and losses rather than starting from scratch each week and ranking each team based on their performance so far. This creates inertia where a team who started highly ranked has to perform very poorly to exit the poll and a team who was lowly or not ranked has to perform very well to get ranked/move into the top ranges of the poll. There shouldn't be inertia in the poll but there is.
How often do we hear people screaming "Team X lost, they have to move down and Team Y won, they have to move up." Never mind that Team X may be ranked first and this is their first loss while Team Y is second and already has a loss. This is also why the SEC playing cupcakes in the waning weeks of the season is such a huge advantage even beyond it being a late, get healthy pseudo open week. Voters think they have to move a team down if they lose late to a good team even though their resume may be better than the team who played nobody that week and got a meaningless win.
I think we’re going to be pleasantly surprised with Sowell and Townsend. Townsend is currently rehabbing an injury he sustained in spring ball, but if/when he’s at 100%, he has the chance to maybe be the best athlete we’ve ever seen at ISU
Our over under for wins this year is 7.5. This team can compete for a Big-12 title, but if your expectation is top 10 your probably going to be disappointed this year.
I mean... we're replacing 4 draft picks, 2 1K yard receivers.... what do you expect?
I would actually be a fan of no rankings until about week 6-7. Rankings prior to this are based on hype/prejudice. This is why the CFP poll isn't released until early November.
But the media needs clicks. And the best way to get clicks is to favor teams that they are heavily invested in. Their fans will soak it up, giving the media more $$ while they turn around and reinvest it right back to those schools.
#Conflict of Interest
But the media needs clicks. And the best way to get clicks is to favor teams that they are heavily invested in. Their fans will soak it up, giving the media more $$ while they turn around and reinvest it right back to those schools.
#Conflict of Interest
Townsend is injured now too? Sowell was out all spring with an injury too, right?
Not an ideal start folks.
I actually hope he doesn't, because that likely means we are better balanced with the rushing attack.
Agree, but this is the reason the SEC schedules cupcakes at the end of their season. When the B12 loses games toward the end of their season because of tougher scheduling, the prejudiced rankers can discount early SEC season defeats. Though it didn't work out for them last year, just look at the effort they went to to get Alabama in the playoffs. There's no doubt in my mind, that's the playbook for the SEC.
Their FPI ratings have us at #45, behind UNLV and Minny. That places us #9 in Big 12.
Time to prove them wrong again.
www.espn.com
Time to prove them wrong again.
2026 College Football Power Index - ESPN
View the 2026 College Football power index on ESPN. The FPI is the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season.
I wonder if this will get printed out and put on the first bulletin board the team sees when they enter the Jacobsen Building?Their FPI ratings have us at #45, behind UNLV and Minny. That places us #9 in Big 12.
Time to prove them wrong again.
2026 College Football Power Index - ESPN
View the 2026 College Football power index on ESPN. The FPI is the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season.
