Urban Meyer is calling out the AP poll for ranking college football teams based on outdated reputations rather than current talent. With NIL and the transfer portal reshaping entire rosters, the former Ohio State coach believes early rankings are biased and unreliable.

Now, he’s demanding a major change to the system, joining ESPN analysts Scott Van Pelt and Josh Pate in questioning the credibility of preseason polls.

“Get rid of the poll until mid-October,” Meyer said, according to the Triple Option podcast’s X post. “The poll is what it is. I mean, people can do it, but there’s teams that when you have 60 new players, who’s voting on that? Once again, they’re voting on what they did last year. So this is a new era, and it’s biased. No, brands are gone now. There are no brands anymore. It’s all money.”

The AP released its preseason poll on August 17, while the US LBM Coaches Poll came out on August 4. Both ranked Ohio State first, and 24 of their 25 selections were identical. Yet 12 teams from the 2025 preseason AP Top 25 finished that season unranked, according to USA Today.

Meyer has been on this since September, when he called Ohio State’s drop to No. 7 “a joke” on Big Noon Kickoff. The Buckeyes had lost 24-23 at Texas after leading by 20, and Meyer argued that voters were penalizing teams for playing tough non-conference road games.

In September, Josh Pate criticized the AP poll for allowing preseason expectations to influence rankings even after teams had established their records.

“We are a quarter of the way through the season now, and people are still clinging to preseason rankings. People are still clinging to what they believed at a pool party or at media days in July,” Pate said.

Pate questioned why Ole Miss remained fourth despite beating two top-16 opponents, LSU and Louisville. He also argued that Mississippi State wasn’t receiving the recognition its results deserved compared with established programs.

When asked whether brand bias had always been part of the poll, Meyer pushed back. He argued that the traditional advantages of established programs have changed because “it’s all money” now. He made a similar point on The Herd on October 19, admitting he had “misfired” by expecting NIL to make the rich richer. Instead, he told Colin Cowherd that it had produced greater parity.

Last Saturday, five of the top seven teams in the poll lost on the same day, a first since the AP started ranking teams in 1936. Georgia, a 20.5-point favorite, lost to unranked Auburn, Miami reached No. 1 for the first time since 2002, and BYU jumped to No. 2.

Meyer’s mid-October proposal would give voters roughly six or seven games to evaluate teams based on actual performances, head-to-head results, and strength of schedule rather than preseason reputation. The College Football Playoff committee, meanwhile, doesn’t release its first rankings until November 3.

But the Associated Press has defended its approach. In an August interview with The Spun, AP Global Sports Editor Josh Hoffner argued that preseason rankings provide an important early benchmark based on the expertise of journalists across more than 30 states. He also maintained that the poll’s diverse voting panel helps counteract bias.

Rece Davis’s AP Poll Struggles Add to Urban Meyer’s Concerns

But even experienced AP voters have admitted how difficult it is to put together a ballot, raising further questions about the system Meyer wants changed.

“I revise it a bunch of times,” Rece Davis said on The Pat McAfee Show when asked about his Top 25 teams on October 7. “I’m scared to death every week that in the process of physically moving teams around, that I accidentally axe somebody out, all of that kind of thing that you worry you’re going to get killed about.”

Davis’s comments came amid fan dissatisfaction with the poll. Pitt overcame a 14-point deficit to beat previously unbeaten Virginia Tech 35-33, yet Davis left the Panthers off his ballot. Meanwhile, Mississippi State moved up one spot to No. 14 on his list. San Antonio Express-News voter Greg Luca ranked Mississippi State at No. 10 despite its 33-point loss to Alabama, while also excluding Pitt.

Davis acknowledged the criticism and explained how contradictory results complicate voting. Mississippi State beat Missouri, Missouri defeated Florida, Florida beat Ole Miss, and Ole Miss defeated LSU.

This week, Davis placed BYU ahead of Miami despite saying he would favor Miami in a hypothetical matchup on a neutral field.

While the AP maintains that early rankings provide a useful benchmark, critics question whether voters should be making those judgments before teams have established themselves on the field.