Why Auburn Football Is The AP Poll's Most Overrated Team In CFP Era

Why Auburn Football Is The AP Poll's Most Overrated Team In CFP Era

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Why Auburn Football Is The AP Poll's Most Overrated Team In CFP Era
According to On3, Auburn's inability to meet preseason expectations has the Tigers as the most overrated team in the CFP era.
According to On3, Auburn's inability to meet preseason expectations has the Tigers as the most overrated team in the CFP era. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

The Auburn Tigers, frankly, have been a shadow of their former selves over the past few seasons, but a recent stat may finally encapsulate the immense disappointment suffered by the Auburn faithful since their last title run in 2013. That stat? Auburn football is, numerically, the most consistently overrated team in football since the beginning of the College Football Playoff era in 2014.

What does this mean? Quite simply, Auburn has consistently underperformed compared to preseason expectations, and last year's unit may be the best example of that. After all, Hugh Freeze put together a roster that, on paper, should have been one of the best in the nation, and still, the Tigers went 5-7 and missed out entirely on a bowl game.

The Tigers were even ranked during that season, albeit for just one week, as they were ranked as the 21st-best team in the country ahead of their matchup against Oklahoma, where the wheels seemed to begin to come off as the Tigers allowed nine sacks throughout the matchup.

This year, it would be quite impressive for the Tigers to be overrated by the AP Poll, though, as Alex Golesh's team only received three total votes to be ranked at all, whereas other SEC programs with new head coaches, like Florida, received upwards of 50 votes.

In his first year as the program's new head coach, Golesh will look to change that narrative in 2026 and beyond.

So, unlike many Auburn teams of the last decade or so, the Tigers will be entering 2026 with something to prove and, admittedly, not a whole lot to lose. This year's ranking is one of the lowest the Tigers have had entering a season, and, well, when the goal is simply to have a winning season, the bar is not exactly high on the Plains.

The benefit of this is that it allows Golesh to spend this season building the foundation he has been so adamant about, which should bode well for the future of the program, provided, of course, everything goes according to plan, which it rarely does.

The story of Auburn's 2026 football season will not be one of living up to or disappointing rankings or projections, but rather a story of what a battered, beaten football program that has consistently disappointed will do to make sure a constant trend of failure does not continue.

Sign up for our free Auburn Tigers newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news!

Today's best reads

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/auburn as Why Auburn Football Is The AP Poll's Most Overrated Team In CFP Era.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos