Every week, the AP Top 25 comes full of hype, surprise risers, and a few eyebrow-raising choices. After Week 6, the nation’s best programs either flexed their muscles or got exposed. Ohio State kept rolling, Miami kept climbing, and somewhere in the shadows of this chaos, two teams sit pretty on the rankings, dazzling voters with shiny records built on sand. Let’s talk about the two most overrated teams in the AP Top 25. 

No. 23 Memphis (6-0) 

Let’s give Memphis its flowers first. They’re undefeated, sitting at 6-0, and just cracked the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2015. Underdog headlines suit them. The Tigers even own the nation’s longest active winning streak at 10 games and became the first bowl-eligible team this season. It sounds like a dream script for sure. But take a closer look at the schedule, and the shine somehow dims a bit. 

Memphis has feasted on nobodies. Tulsa, Florida Atlantic, Georgia State, Troy, and Arkansas have all been the main course in their buffet of soft matchups. Sure, a 45–7 win looks great in the box score, but when your toughest opponent might be a 2-4 FAU team, how much are we really learning? Their QB, Brendon Lewis, has looked electric, accounting for four touchdowns in the latest blowout against Tulsa. But he’s been playing in rookie mode all season. Until he shows up against a defense with a pulse, we can’t crown him or his Tigers as anything more than good on paper.

The biggest problem is that Memphis hasn’t moved the needle despite its perfect start. That’s because voters know what’s up. You can’t fool the metrics forever. This team’s schedule strength ranks near the bottom of FBS, and the eye test screams pretender. The Tigers might be the only Group of Five squad in the coaches’ poll, but that says more about how thin the G5 landscape is than how good Memphis actually is. Their bye week might be their best defensive performance yet because at least they won’t give up 30+ points to another mid-tier opponent.

The real test comes October 25, when they host No. 24 South Florida, another Cinderella trying to prove its glass slipper fits. That’s the moment we find out if Memphis is real or just another product of AP poll inflation. Until then, let’s pump the brakes on the Memphis Magic talk. Undefeated doesn’t always mean elite. Sometimes, it just means untested.

No. 18 BYU (5-0) 

BYU jumped five spots after beating West Virginia 38–24, which sounds impressive until you realize WVU might be one of the programs with lost direction in the Power 4 right now. The Cougars are 5-0, but this is where the numbers start lying to you. Let’s list their notable wins. Stanford (the Stanford that can’t throw, run, or tackle), Colorado (which just fell to 2-4), and West Virginia. 

BYU fans will point to their tradition, their discipline, and their freshman QB Bear Bachmeier, who’s looked solid under Kalani Sitake. And credit where it’s due, the HC has turned BYU into a model of consistency. The Cougars have now started 5-0 in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in school history. That’s stability and structure.

The Cougars’ best win came against a Colorado team that almost beat them despite imploding in the fourth quarter. Their defense is serviceable. Their offense is efficient but untested. And their fan base is as loud as ever. However, BYU hasn’t beaten a team ranked higher than 70th in total offense or defense this season.

The road ahead, though, won’t let them hide much longer. Arizona, Utah, Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU, and Cincinnati are all looming. If BYU’s offensive line can survive the physicality of Utah or the chaos of Iowa State’s blitz packages, then maybe they’ll earn that No. 18 spot. Until then, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

Bear Bachmeier deserves praise for his poise, but even the best QBs need tests. A 69-0 drubbing of Portland State isn’t one. Neither is a 27-3 victory over Stanford. That’s like bragging about beating your little brother at Madden. The Cougars are walking a fine line between “underrated scrappers” and “ranked impostors.” 

The AP Poll has always had a soft spot for undefeated records. But not all 6-0 or 5-0 starts are created equal. Memphis and BYU are living proof that timing and optics often outweigh the strength of schedule. In an age of advanced analytics and computer models, voters still fall for shiny records like it’s 1997. It’s the same cycle every year. A few mid-tier programs ride a cupcake schedule into October, earn a ranking, then get smacked back to reality once conference play kicks in. Memphis and BYU just happen to be this year’s poster children. 

But their rise is also because Texas and Penn State didn’t just fall out of the Top 10. They are now out of the Top 25. The Longhorns lost to a struggling Florida, and the less said the better about what UCLA did to Penn State. Both teams had done nothing to justify their rankings so far. The voters were more fixated on maintaining their pre-season standings. These are just two of the pretenders who got exposed. A similar fate may follow Brian Kelly’s LSU if they don’t get their act together. When such shifts happen, programs like BYU and Memphis gain, but if there’s anything they can learn from Texas and Penn State, it’s that the reality checks are coming.