Josh Pate's College Football Show Early Top 25 + Worst CFB Take & Dabo Haters Return
Feb 2, 2026
Early Top 25 chatter and the messy roster shuffle shaping preseason rankings. Big discussions about SEC scheduling pain, Texas and Oklahoma’s brutal road maps, and LSU’s tricky slate. A heated defense of Dabo Swinney amid tampering claims. Mood check on Florida State and a bizarre cautionary tale from a theater showing of The Housemaid.
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Early Rankings Reflect Today, Not Ceiling
- Josh Pate frames his early Top 25 as rankings of how teams would look today in February 2026 rather than power ratings. He emphasizes roster fluidity, coaching changes, and portal moves will shift these repeatedly before fall camp.
Weigh Current Roster Status Over Upside
- Consider roster uncertainty when projecting teams; don't rank a team atop the board just for upside alone. Josh uses LSU as an example of a team he expects to start lower than its ceiling because of early-season uncertainty.
Nine-Game SEC Compresses The Middle Tier
- Josh argues the SEC's move to a nine-game conference schedule compresses quality across the league and eliminates a single dominant tier. He warns this creates many similar 'shelf two' teams and more 9-3 outcomes than clear elites.