Ranking 136 College Football Teams After 2025 Season THE ATHLETIC

[WinMinGophers!]

Agree? Disagree?

This was a free read to me after logging in. I am a former subscriber to The Athletic (New York Times):

Ranking 136 college football teams after the 2025 season: A no-doubt No. 1 and other inspiring risers

Last year’s expanded College Football Playoff made for the most difficult end-of-season ranking ever. This year, not nearly as much.

www.nytimes.com

Here is Minnesota, the 3 Big Ten teams next higher, and the two Big Ten teams next lower. All other B1G teams higher or lower than that omitted, have to read the article.

#28 Washington
#29 Illinois

#39 Northwestern
#40 Minnesota
#41 Penn State

#52 Nebraska

 

[Some guy]

Seems about right which is rare


Wisconsin beat Illinois and Washington.
Illinois beat USC.
USC beat Michigan.
Michigan doesn’t have a bad loss but their best wins were Washington, New Mexico, and Nebraska.

My point being
The difference between number 21 in the final AP poll and being 6-6 is a few plays here and there and your schedule.

 

[nsmike]

It's a pretty reasonable ranking without much difference between 31 and 40 Make the field goal against Northwestern and we would have been ranked top 30.

 

[BigTenGuy]

FWIW, Gophers end up at 53 in the Sagarin, 48 in the Massey Composite and 70 in SP+ rankings.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

It's a pretty reasonable ranking without much difference between 31 and 40 Make the field goal against Northwestern and we would have been ranked top 30.

That field goal was for a tie. We don't know how the overtime would have gone although we did win both of our overtime games this season. Also, why would the Gophers at #40 move into the top 30 by virtue of beating #39 in overtime?

 

[nsmike]

That field goal was for a tie. We don't know how the overtime would have gone although we did win both of our overtime games this season. Also, why would the Gophers at #40 move into the top 30 by virtue of beating #39 in overtime?

It seems that to be top 30 you needed a 9-5 record. Beating Northwestern would do that