The AP college football preseason poll was released on August 11, 2025, and featured the Texas Longhorns at #1, the Penn State Nittany Lions at #2, and the Clemson Tigers at #4.
Now, in the latest AP poll released on October 12th, Penn State and Clemson are both unranked, with Texas all the way down at #21 after being unranked last week.
So how have these three huge programs not lived up to their preseason hype? What are the problems? And will they be able to turn things around in time to have a chance to make the college football playoff?
Clemson
When the Tigers lost their first three games out of four, it looked like a bad season was well underway. Dropping their first game to LSU, currently #10, was not that bad of a loss, but then it all went downhill. Clemson then won a shaky game vs Troy, but then lost back to back games vs Georgia Tech, currently #12, and unranked Syracuse.
The main problem with Clemson has been the offense. Quarterback Cade Klubnik has been inconsistent at times, especially in the big games in the start of the year. I think there is no possible way for Clemson to make the playoffs this year. They’ve simply lost too many games. They are turning their year around with back to back wins, but it’s not enough. Clemson also does not have enough big games left on their schedule that could impress the committee. Clemson would be lucky just to be bowl-eligible by season’s end. Could this be Dabo Swinney’s last year in charge of the Tigers?
Texas
Texas is the only team ranked out of these three, even though at times that haven’t looked like they should be. Too many close games against bad teams and two losses has the preseason #1 all the way down at #21. They did however, get a big win in the “Red River Rivalry” this weekend.
So what’s been the problem for Texas this year? Texas as a whole team has been decent, they just have parts of their squad holding them back. Their offensive line has been really bad this year. This is causing Arch Manning rushing to throw the ball, resulting in poor choices and an inconsistent offense. Texas definitely has a shot to get to the playoffs this year, but it will be tough. They cannot lose another game this year and they still have #9 Georgia and #4 Texas A&M on their schedule. If they win those games, I think the Longhorns can sneak back into the playoff picture.
Penn State
Penn State has probably been the most disappointing team of these three. They have a very talented roster, but they cannot put everything together. Their team looks uncoordinated on both sides of the football. This team really should not be this bad. Penn State also fired their coach of 12 years James Franklin this week, which includes a $50 million buy out.
There is no way that Penn State can make the playoffs. They lost to arguably two of the worst teams in the Big Ten and still have to play #1 Ohio State and #3 Indiana. Big programs in college football have down years all the time but not like this. This team for Penn State was supposed to win a national championship, instead they are paying $50 million just to get rid of their head coach.
This year it seems the College Playoff Picture is wide open. The question is, which teams will step into the void? It could make for a wild scene!
