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The shifting environment to the transfer portal and pay-for-play (NIL) has been cited by many notable head coaches in college sports as a contributing factor to their departure from the ranks. Now, it's become the reason that multiple conferences have stopped conducting a preseason media or coaches poll, including the Big 12 and the American, and Conference USA. The Big Ten stopped releasing a poll over 15 years ago.
Media outlets have taken up the slack. Cleveland.com has conducted the Big Ten preseason poll for the last 15 seasons. Meanwhile, AtTheRoost.com produced an American Conference poll of media members, KSLSports.com handled the Big 12 preseason poll, and the Las Cruces Sun-News took up the task of polling Conference USA media members.
Oddly enough, they still release some form a preseason player 'all-conference team' or preseason 'honors'. But they're not releasing a team poll because so many top players constantly move around. (??)
The added expense to a college football program has additionally caused some schools to cancel their football programs or move to lower divisions. For instance, the Saint Francis (Pa.) Red Flash are leaving D1 FCS for the less-expensive D3 ranks in 2026.
When Mack Brown stepped down from North Carolina, he echoed the feelings of Nick Saban. Brown's Texas team won the 2025 season championship over USC in one of the greatest title games ever played in any sport.
Saban is arguably the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of all Time) in college football with 7 National Titles under his belt, collecting six at Alabama (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2019) after picking up one at LSU (2003). “Each year it’s gotten a little worse,” Saban said Thursday on the "Pat McAfee Show." “The first year we had name, image and likeness, four or five years ago, we had $3 million, and everybody was happy. Then the next year it was seven. Then the next year it’s 10. Then this year, it’s 13. Now they’re looking at 20. I mean, where does it end? And the people who are supporting this, they really get no benefit for it. And I’m sure that there’s going to be some instances in the future where those people don’t want to continue to support players that aren’t there.”
Jeff Hafley left Boston College for the NFL due to the changing landscape in college football, and the need to focus on other areas such as NIL and roster retention. “He wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football,” a source told ESPN's Pete Thamel. “College coaching has become fundraising, NIL and recruiting your own team and transfers. There’s no time to coach football anymore.”
Jim Harbaugh left Michigan and went back to the pros, and Clemson's Dabo Swinney voices his disdain every chance he gets.
For the same reasons, basketball has lost the likes of Tony Bennett, Jay Wright and one of that sport's GOATs in Mike Krzyzewski. All cited the NIL money grab and the portal directly or indirectly as factors in their decision.
With more conferences abandoning their traditional preseason polls, fans are left to digest what the oddsmakers say and there's plenty of Sportsbook love for LSU, but the Bayou Bengals still trail Texas, Georgia and Alabama in the ranking of SEC Champion odds.
Tulane tops American Conference teams, while Liberty outpaces all of the other Conference USA squads. In the Big 12, the best odds lie with Kansas State and Texas Tech as last year's champion, Arizona State, slips to fifth.
See all the 2025 College Football conference winner odds.
For polls from other conferences, visit the Season Preview on CollegeFootballPoll.com.
Here are the results of polling by the sources referenced above.
| Rank | Team (1st) | Points | Avg. Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Penn State (11) | 435 | 1.60 |
| 2 | Ohio State (11) | 431 | 1.76 |
| 3 | Oregon (2) | 405 | 2.80 |
| 4 | Illinois | 353 | 4.88 |
| 5 | Michigan (1) | 346 | 5.16 |
| 6 | Indiana | 305 | 680 |
| 7 | Iowa | 287 | 7.52 |
| 8 | Nebraska | 277 | 7.92 |
| 9 | USC | 269 | 8.24 |
| 10 | Washington | 216 | 10.36 |
| 11 | Minnesota | 192 | 11.32 |
| 12 | Wisconsin | 159 | 12.60 |
| 13 | Michigan State | 135 | 13.60 |
| 13 | Rutgers | 135 | 13.60 |
| 15 | UCLA | 134 | 13.64 |
| 16 | Maryland | 91 | 15.36 |
| 17 | Northwestern | 65 | 16.40 |
| 18 | Purdue | 39 | 17.44 |
No info was given was given on the number of votes each team received and KSL Sports apparently only quizzed their own staff.
Arizona State
Texas Tech
Iowa State
Kansas State
Baylor
BYU
Utah
TCU
Kansas
Colorado
Arizona
Houston
Cincinnati
Oklahoma State
West Virginia
UCF
The Roost gathered a representative sample of media members to conduct its poll with representation from all 14 programs. Here are the results, with first-place votes in parentheses:
Team, 1st-place votes, Total points
Tulane (9) 188
Navy (3) 170
Memphis (2) 166
UTSA 146
USF 133
Army 132
East Carolina 117
North Texas 104
FAU 77
Rice 73
Charlotte 45
Temple 45
Tulsa 38
UAB 36
The conference released its Bowl Confidence Index at its annual Media Days. Voted on by a panel of 24 members – consisting of a sports information director and media representative from each CUSA institution – the index reflects the percentage of ballots each team appeared on, proving a confidence score for their likelihood of reaching postseason play.
This begs the question as to why not release a poll when this has the same result.
School Pct.
Liberty100.00%
WKU 100.00%
Jax State 91.67%
LA Tech 75.00%
Sam Houston 45.83%
UTEP 41.67%
FIU 37.50%
Delaware 29.17%
MTSU 25.00%
NM State 25.00%
Kennesaw 16.67%
Missouri St.12.50%