Inside the AP Poll: Why Penn State and Texas fell out of the Top 25

We have officially reached a breaking point. Six weeks into the 2025 college football season, we are finally ready to abandoned our preconceived notions and our preseason perceptions.

Texas and Penn State are no longer ranked in the new AP Top 25, which came out one day after both teams picked up their second loss of the season. The Longhorns fell to a Florida team that appears poised to fire its head coach at any time, and the Nittany Lions suffered one of the most shocking losses in recent memory, upset by an 0-4 UCLA team with an interim head coach and a first-time play caller.

Nearly two months ago, the preseason AP poll came out with Texas as the nation’s No. 1 team. Penn State checked in at No. 2. Both teams — fresh off College Football Playoff semifinal appearances — were considered locks for the CFP and true national championship contenders. Now, their seasons are in disarray.

I did not include either team on my ballot this week. I was pleased to see that enough of my peers felt the same way I did. Neither Penn State nor Texas has a single win over a Power 4 opponent. There are plenty of unranked teams that clear that bar; these two teams do not get a pass because of where they were ranked before any games were played.

According to my friend Ralph Russo, who used to oversee the management of the AP Top 25, this is the first time in the history of the poll that the preseason Nos. 1 and 2 were both unranked at some point in the same season. It’s only fitting that both teams plummeted out of the poll the same week, as their struggles have been among this season’s biggest storylines.

As I wrote on Saturday night, I’m not entirely sure where Penn State goes from here. It’s one thing to lose to the best teams on your schedule and another thing entirely to become the first top-10 team in four decades to lose to an opponent that was 0-4 or worse. I do wonder if it would be best for both parties if James Franklin takes a serious look at the Power 4 jobs that open this cycle; his buyout to leave State College is small, and he’d get a clean slate somewhere else. Franklin is a really good program-builder, and a lot of schools will be looking for that (and perhaps be willing to pay something similar to what he makes now). He doesn’t have to live under a magnifying glass and coach in front of fans who chant how much they want him gone. He could decide to start anew, if he wants, at the end of the season.

As for Texas, the whole situation is perplexing. Arch Manning is obviously nowhere near the quarterback we expected him to be, and he can forget about next year’s NFL Draft. But he’s getting absolutely no help from the Texas run game or his offensive line. Against Florida on Saturday, Manning was pressured on 59.5 percent of his dropbacks; just one other Power 4 quarterback faced a higher pressure rate all season. And, after a number of disappointing and disjointed offensive efforts this season, it was the Longhorns’ defense that let them down against the Gators. So, there’s not much for Texas to hang its hat on at this time — and there’s still so much of the season to go.

Other stray thoughts/observations:

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