Ohio State remained No. 1 in the AP Top 25 rankings after Week 1 of the 2026 season. However, the AP voters weren’t as kind to two other Big Ten teams. Oregon dropped several spots, while Michigan got pushed out of the Top 25. But for Josh Pate, the most surprising thing was the position of Lane Kiffin’s LSU.
“There is the way you should think, and then there is the way an AP voter thinks about LSU,” Josh Pate said during his podcast on September 8. “You saw them last week. They took Clemson, and they tossed them straight into a wood chipper, and what do you get for that? Ranked 8th in the AP poll. Drugs. That’s the only explanation.”
“As much as I’d love to totally dismiss this, it’s this style of thinking that bothers me. Because this style of thinking kind of permeates its way into the playoff room as well. So, I’m looking through the AP ballots today. Knowing I just watched a borderline hate crime get committed by LSU against Clemson the other night… And I’m thinking they may be number one. If they’re not number one, they’re top three,” Pate added in his podcast.
LSU delivered a statement blowout by demolishing Clemson 51–10 in the most anticipated matchup of Week 1. The Arizona State transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt was the star of the night. He accumulated 343 total yards, which helped LSU rattle off 51 unanswered points. On the other side of the ball, the LSU defense didn’t let the Clemson offense breathe throughout the night. The sheer dominance of this win over a major program should have earned them a higher ranking.
Josh Klatt was also not happy with the poll rankings. He believes that AP Polls were being too rigid and sticking too closely to preseason expectations. In his personal Top 10, Klatt pushed LSU all the way up to No. 3 based on their Week 1 dominance.
While Ohio State sat at 46 points to secure the first position, LSU also received five first-place votes. It was, in fact, 2 more than No. 2 Georgia or No. 4 Texas received.
However, they still moved up 3 spots in the preseason AP Poll. LSU started the season ranked No. 11 in the preseason polls. In college football, voters rarely vault a team from outside the top 10 into the top three after just one game. So they would still have to put up another exciting win to reach the higher ranks.
But even then, nothing explains how Oregon is ranked higher than LSU. Although the Ducks dropped four spots from their preseason ranking, the 6th spot still seems a lot higher given how they played against Boise State.
Miami remained at 7th despite an impressive win because one AP voter forgot to put the Canes in his Top 25. That only adds credence to Pate’s long-held view about the AP rankings being meaningless. Moreover, LSU’s win should also be seen in the context of the headlines going into the Clemson matchup.
Before the season kicked off, there was a lot of noise surrounding the Tigers. The recruitment of former NFL-signed players back into college football drew much heat toward Lane Kiffin. The SEC passed a rule to ban former pros from returning to college football. However, the players got an injunction from a Louisiana court. Even then, Kiffin avoided putting them on the roster to face Clemson.
To make matters worse, the SEC hit LSU and Lane Kiffin with a lawsuit just 48 hours before their season opener. All this created a lot of nervousness and doubt among fans about whether Kiffin would meet expectations. In hindsight, no one should have doubted Kiffin’s ability to coach a team.
Much of the college football world has since come around to accept LSU as a serious contender for the national championship. However, the AP voters still need some more persuasion.