Associated Press Top 25 voters face an increasingly challenging task. Their primary job isn’t ranking teams — in most cases, they grind to cover one team throughout a season for a local newspaper. Many work long hours doing a great job to provide local coverage, and submitting their AP Top 25 ballot probably doesn’t fall within the top 10 of their weekly priorities. Coupled with the transfer portal causing unprecedented roster turnover, and it’s harder than it’s ever been to put together a coherent preseason ranking … just ask RJ Young.

But AP voters’ refusal to acknowledge Group of Six teams in the preseason poll is embarrassing, and it does those schools a disservice.

From 2018-2025, Group of Five (now Six) teams appeared in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll a combined 12 times. G5 teams appeared in the final poll 36 times(!) during that span. The G6 receives three times as much respect at the end of the season as it does in the preseason.

Unsurprisingly, no G6 teams made this year’s preseason top 25 poll, which came out Monday.

Transfer portal doesn’t help

Let’s start by recognizing that ranking college football teams is hard.

I used to be an AP poll voter when working as a local beat reporter, and during August, September, October, November and December, my focus was covering the University of Virginia for The Daily Progress. You don’t get paid to vote in the AP poll, so naturally it shifts down your list of priorities. In the preseason, building season preview content and familiarizing yourself with your team’s roster and outlook takes up most of your time.

Now, imagine trying to get a general sense of what’s going on across 138 FBS teams. Only about 50 teams probably warrant serious consideration to be ranked in the preseason, but with so much roster turnover, it’s a hard task to get up to speed on all of them.

This is especially true of G6 teams. Even JMU fans still have questions about what the Dukes will look like this fall. The Dukes have a new coach, coordinators, players, etc. It’s a new-look team.

The transfer portal has made ranking G6 teams before the season more challenging. It has also perhaps made the top-end G6 teams a little worse, with many of the best G6 players leaving each offseason to play for more money at P4 schools. Some voters might genuinely believe no G6 teams enter the season deserving to be ranked.

What feels more likely, though, is that most AP voters seem content waiting for G6 teams to prove themselves. Fringe top-25 P4 teams, meanwhile, get the benefit of the doubt in their rankings.

That’s my issue with the G6’s lack of poll representation. It feels like widespread laziness rather than widespread belief in the Power Four programs ranked 15-25. Why not lazily stick Boise State at No. 23, then? Why can’t their laziness extend to the second half of college football?

Try, AP voters, try

It’s not an easy task for AP voters to analyze G6 teams with limited free time, but would it hurt them to try?

There are detailed 138-team FBS previews available from reputable sources like ESPN’s Bill Connelly or Phil Steele. Plenty of other sites perform deep dives into the Group of Six, both in written or podcast form — I thoroughly enjoy preseason podcasts from Split Zone Duo and The Solid Verbal. The Action Network’s podcast network also shares great insights into the best Group of Six teams. Check ‘em out, AP voters!

It requires a little extra effort, but there is information out there about the G6.

Plus, and perhaps most importantly, the current playoff format mandates that a Group of Six team makes the 12-team field. I repeat, there will be a Group of Six team in the playoff.

It’s almost impossible to think all G6 teams will end the season unranked. One of them is all but guaranteed to end the season ranked because THEY ARE IN THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF. In most years, multiple G6 teams finish ranked. Last year, four did. Two made the CFP.

Shouldn’t at least one start the year ranked, too?

But JMU, Tulane, and even Navy returned loaded rosters with proven head coaches in 2025. Was it really that hard to expect teams in that trio to finish as top-25 squads before the season started?

There were plenty of G6 choices for voters this year, too, and some of them showed up in the receiving votes category. Boise State, Navy, UNLV, New Mexico, and JMU were among the teams receiving votes Monday.

Those teams can prove themselves and work their way into the rankings. But last year’s preseason AP Top 25 included 12 teams that finished the season unranked. The preseason rankings have been increasingly wrong during the portal era. They should be treated with less structure than decades ago.

That means recognizing there’s football played outside of the Power Four.

Why do AP voters refuse to acknowledge Group of Six teams before a marquee win or two? It’s yet another example of a national publication blindly siding with the Power Four out of laziness.

I’m not asking for a ban of preseason polls. That’ll never happen given the desire for 24/7 content. I am, however, urging AP Top 25 voters to expand their horizons.

There are 10 FBS conferences. Stop ignoring six of them every August.

Photo courtesy of JMU Athletics Communications