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AP Top 25 voters ignore Mississippi State's head-to-head win with absurd ranking

Apparently beating a team head-to-head means nothing to the voters of the AP Poll.
ByAndrew Miller|
Sep 6, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs wide receiver Brenen Thompson (0) runs after a catch for a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
Sep 6, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs wide receiver Brenen Thompson (0) runs after a catch for a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Mississippi State was unranked in the AP Top 25 at 4-0, so it's not at all surprising that the Bulldogs remained unranked at 4-1. After their home overtime loss to a ranked Tennessee team, State stayed on the outside looking in of the rankings.

Officially, the Bulldogs are the third team out of the rankings, or "28th", down one spot from last week.

Ranking Arizona State above Mississippi State is completely illogical

Mississippi State not being ranked isn't necessarily a travesty. If one doesn't put much value on the win over Arizona State, then it'd be understandable why the remainder of the body of work wouldn't be enough to have them ranked.

But the line of logic that makes it necessary to not the rank the Bulldogs makes it completely illogical that Arizona State is currently ranked while Mississippi State is not.

Both teams are 4-1. One of them beat the other. Determining which should be higher in the rankings should be pretty straightforward.

It goes beyond that one game too. Mississippi State win over the Sun Devils is better than any win the Sun Devils have seeing as how TCU is now unranked. In wins against lesser opponents, the Bulldogs were more dominant. Mississippi State's loss is to a Top 15 team in overtime. Even arguing that ASU's loss came on the road while the Bulldogs' was at home can't outweigh the rest of it.

Again, not ranking Mississippi State is fine, but there's no justifying not having them ranked but putting the Sun Devils in. Yet that's exactly what 12 voters did, multiple of which had them as high as No. 17. How can you possible say that a team is one of the 17 best in the country but then suggest that the team that beat them head-to-head with the same overall record isn't at least in the same range.

Look, voting for the Top 25 isn't necessarily easy. It can be difficult to properly order teams, differentiating between disconnected resumes of teams playing wildly different opponents. Maintaining a consistent process across the board isn't as simply as it always seems.

But this case feels quite simple. When you've got such limited resume points, favoring the the team that won head-to-head just makes sense, especially when every other factor to consider also favors the winning squad.

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