Saturday college football games gather supporters from all around, as fans look forward to the Associated Press Top 25 Poll results ranking their favorite teams. These rankings are voted on by 60 writers and broadcasters who cover college football nationwide. Some CHS college football fans have strong opinions about these rankings and how fair they are to their favorite team.
University of Georgia fan Brady Solomon (‘26) felt as though this vote was a fair way to determine the rankings.
“I do [feel that rankings are fair] because there are a bunch of people who decide the rankings, not just one person. Obviously I think Georgia should be higher up [than they are right now, ranked at number five], but it’s okay,” said Solomon.
On the other hand, University of Michigan fan Javier Valanju (‘29) disagreed with the fairness of the rankings.
“Michigan should be in the top twelve because they have won the last two or three weeks in a row and their only losses are to two ranked teams, Oklahoma and USC,” said Valanju.
Another Georgia fan, Garrett Peters (‘26) thought that strength of schedule, meaning the difficulty of the teams they play throughout the season, plays an important role in these rankings.
“I think it’s good that [Georgia] has a strong schedule because they’re a team now that is consistently making playoff runs, and it definitely helps that they have a strong schedule to show for it. They should always be considered for the playoffs, even if there’s a season or two where they’re not doing as great because they have such a strong schedule. It goes both ways in terms of helping them or not because last year, other teams benefited from having a weaker schedule,” said Peters.
But will the strength of schedule always maintain this much weight in the poll?
“I’m worried that this trend [of weak schedule strength] could continue, and we’ll start to see the regular season not matter at all because all of the big teams are playing really easy schools. It would just become too easy,” said Peters.
On the other hand, Will Keser (‘28) expressed his opinion that teams like unranked Syracuse have a big disadvantage with how their schedule is arranged.
“[Syracuse’s schedule] is against them one hundred percent. Coming into the season, they had one of the hardest schedules. Obviously there are going to be teams with hard schedules, so [the schedules] should weigh into the rankings,” said Keser.
Sometimes, all it takes to be able to climb the rankings is to play a larger SEC (Southeastern Conference) team and beat or come close to beating them.
“[Georgia Tech] has a good schedule, but they don’t play any high ranked teams [from the] SEC because they are in the ACC. [GT] plays Georgia over Thanksgiving break, and I think if we were to play one or two more SEC schools, then we could get higher in the ranks,” said Blaire Thomson (‘29).
While things like strength of schedule are taken into account, it truly all comes down to the team’s ability to play well.
“LSU, who is unranked, has an offense and defense that are both hard to watch. I think it is a little bit too late in the season for them to get better, but there’s always hope,” said George Ross (‘26).
While opinions on college football rankings vary, many find that the process of determining rankings is complex and often subjective.
