It's like the last two years never happened.
The Big Ten won the last two national championships and went 11-6 in bowl games last season, but the annual preseason ESPN Football Performance Index came out, and it continues to be a promotional organ for the SEC.
The Top Three schools in FPI are Texas, Georgia and Alabama. In all, 13 of the 16 SEC teams make the Top 25, including Texas A&M, Auburn, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.
Six Big Ten teams make the cut. Defending National Champion Ohio State is No. 4. The big three SEC schools all have new starting quarterbacks in 2025.
The preseason ratings give the conference a ratings boost in the fall. It serves to promote the narrative of "a gauntlet" and ratchets up their playoff position, inflates the overall standing of the conference.
It serves to excuse the November games against Mercer and Furman. And it didn't prove out last year.
Now that everybody is paying players, the SEC supremacy tag just doesn't fit as well it did 10 years ago. Ohio State drubbed Tennessee, Oregon and Texas on its way to the national title. SEC notables like Florida, Ole Miss and Alabama missed the tournament.
The Tide didn't qualify after in-season losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. Ole Miss lost to Kentucky at home and to the 8-5 Gators.
When 45% of preseason ranked SEC teams finish unranked, it's time to call the model out for what it is: Pure propaganda, designed to inflate SEC perceptions throughout the year.
ESPN is the exclusive rights holder for SEC football and basketball, a TV contract worth $3 billion, $300 million annually. There's a vested interest in promoting the brand.
While it's easy to say "preseason rankings don't matter," they do, because a team ranked at the beginning of the year has a bigger margin of error, and inflated rankings boost strength-of-schedule.
The Big Ten has won the last two titles, yet half as many conference teams make the preseason Top 25. It's by design.