As an avid college football fan, I tune in to a plethora of games on Saturdays. While watching these games, it’s very easy to see which teams are good and which aren’t. My issue with college football comes from the AP Top 25 Poll, the college football ranking system. The teams are ranked in order of strength and power, though I see a few teams that show the inconsistencies with the ranking system and how some teams get unfair treatment. Why are some teams penalized when they lose to unranked teams and others aren’t?
No. 19 Iowa is the most overrated team in college football and should never be ranked in the AP Poll. The fact that they are just shows the lack of research done by voters. Iowa checked in at No. 2 in the Week 7 AP Poll. Anybody that knows about college football knows that the Hawkeyes had no business being ranked that high. Their lone ranked win came against No. 3 Penn State, who’s starting quarterback Sean Clifford left the game due to injury.
Since their win over Penn State, Iowa has been absolutely dominated in their past two games against two unranked opponents in Purdue and Wisconsin. Iowa lost to Purdue 24-7 and lost to Wisconsin 27-7. Despite having two consecutive unranked losses by a cumulative score of 51-14, Iowa is still ranked as a Top 25 team. Mind-boggling. These are the inconsistencies that have me questioning what these voters are looking at.
No. 17 BYU is also extremely overrated. The 7-2 Cougars have zero ranked wins, while also having a loss to an unranked team and a two-score loss to No. 14 Baylor. Their unranked loss was to Boise State by a score of 26-17, whose record is 4-4. They struggle against every team they play, including 0-8 Arizona and 2-6 South Florida, who BYU beat by just eight points each. The opponents that they beat have a cumulative record of 29 wins and 29 losses. Nothing about this team is impressive, and it’s a wonder as to how they are ranked inside the top 20.
No. 22 Penn State is the only team that has three losses in the Top 25 rankings. The Nittany Lions have lost their last three games, including an overtime loss to the Illinois Fighting Ilini that held a 2-5 record before their matchup. PSU was No. 7 before their loss, and what happens to a top ten team that loses to an unranked, two-win team? They drop to 20. What happens when they lose again to Ohio State? They drop to 22. Where is the consistency? Penn State gets the benefit of the doubt when they lose, and I see this as extremely unfair.
When a team loses, they need to be held accountable and their ranking needs to reflect it. As of now, the AP Top 25 poll has failed to do so.
