Brett McMurphy, one of the longtime AP Top 25 voters, decided not to wait for Monday. He posted his entire preseason ballot in pieces on August 13, and the headline is simple: Oregon is his No. 1 team in the country, ahead of defending national champion Ohio State.
Don't hate everything that's wrong w/college football; hate something else: my preseason @AP_Top25 ballot. And I guarantee unless you're an Oregon Duck fan - yes, the Ducks are No. 1 - you will hate my Top 25 ballot https://t.co/LC3jAfMa1E
That's not a small call. Ohio State won the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship, beating Notre Dame 34-23 for the program's first title in a decade, and it returns as one of the most talked-about teams heading into 2026. Putting the Buckeyes at No. 2 behind Oregon is the kind of pick that gets a voter's mentions lit up, which McMurphy clearly knew when he warned everyone to "hate" his ballot before he even posted it.
He wasn't bluffing on the rollout either. McMurphy split his ballot into two posts, the even-numbered teams first and the odd-numbered teams later that night, stacking Ohio State-Notre Dame-Texas-Miami-Washington-Oklahoma-Michigan-SMU-Penn State-Alabama-Tennessee-Iowa on the even side and Oregon-Georgia-Texas Tech-Indiana-Ole Miss-Texas A&M-BYU-LSU-Utah-Houston-Louisville-Arizona-USC on the odd side.
My preseason @AP_Top25 ballot. Commence the hate. The even numbered teams I ranked: 2-Ohio St 4-Notre Dame 6-Texas 8-Miami 10-Washington 12-Oklahoma 14-Michigan 16-SMU 18-Penn St 20-Alabama 22-Tennessee 24-Iowa https://t.co/LC3jAfMa1E
Once the two halves were spliced together, the full board came into focus: Oregon at 1, Ohio State at 2, Georgia at 3, then Notre Dame, Texas Tech, Texas, Indiana, Miami, Ole Miss and Washington rounding out the top 10, all the way down to USC at 25. Georgia landing at No. 3 lines up with where it's been slotted elsewhere this preseason after a 12-2 season and an SEC Championship, so that part of the ballot isn't the outlier — Oregon over Ohio State is.
Brett McMurphy’s AP poll ballot: 1. Oregon 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Notre Dame 5. Texas Tech 6. Texas 7. Indiana 8. Miami 9. Ole Miss 10. Washington 11. Texas A&M 12. Oklahoma 13. BYU 14. Michigan 15. LSU 16. SMU 17. Utah 18. Penn State 19. Houston 20. Alabama 21. Louisville 22. Tennessee 23. Arizona 24. Iowa 25. USC
The Oregon call tracks with a real debate happening across the sport right now. Preseason rankings elsewhere have had the Ducks anywhere from No. 1 to No. 6, with quarterback Dante Moore's return to Eugene fueling a lot of that buzz after last season and putting him in early Heisman conversations. McMurphy landing on the aggressive end of that range, ahead of the reigning champs, is exactly the kind of preseason take built to be revisited in December.
McMurphy also flagged the obvious reason not to take any of this too seriously: he pointed out that 12 of the 25 teams in last year's preseason poll finished the season unranked entirely. Preseason polls are a snapshot of expectations, not predictions that hold up, and McMurphy's own history says roughly half his current ballot won't be ranked at all come December.
Brace yourself. The preseason @AP_Top25 poll will be released in exactly 96 hours. Did I mention last year, 12 of the 25 teams in preseason poll finished year unranked?
The official preseason AP Top 25 is set to be released Monday, August 17, and McMurphy's ballot is just one of dozens that will get averaged into it — so Oregon isn't walking away with the actual No. 1 spot just because one voter put it there. But with betting markets and message boards already reacting to his numbers, McMurphy's ballot has done exactly what he wanted: get people talking before the real thing even drops.