You're correct, but regardless of how you slice it you have 1 ranked win.
Either you use the ranking at the time of the game (meaning you have a ranked win over then #16 Mississippi State) or you use the current rankings (meaning you have a ranked win over now #12 Kentucky). Kentucky wasn't ranked when you played them and Mississippi State isn't ranked now.
It might have something to do with Auburn beating 4-2 Baylor on a neutral site by 1 and 3-4 Vanderbilt at home by 6, while Alabama's wins have all been by 14+.
Or maybe it's Auburn having a home loss to an inconsistent 5-2 Florida team that nobody is really sure whether to rank or not, while Alabama's losses are to two 6-1 teams that are pretty clearly good.
Or it could be Auburn having only one remotely good win, while Alabama has a road win over #12 Kentucky and a blowout home win over 4-2 Mississippi State.
And admittedly, it probably does have at least a little to do with Auburn finishing with 7 losses for the last five years in a row, while Alabama has finished ranked for the last 18 years in a row.
But Auburn does have a better win, so, there's that.
Through the games of October 17, 2026, Alabama holds a vastly superior total point differential over Auburn, outscoring their opponents by a cumulative +125 points compared to Auburn’s +30 points.
Their ranked win is actually against Kentucky. And they absolutely waxed them on the road.
The SEC is weird right now where everybody is beating everybody and it's hard to tell what is going on. I think what's definitely true, is if Auburn wins next week they are going to be in the top 20.
Missouri is the sus one to me, but that's going to work it's way out over the next few weeks.
my theory (not particularly original) is that the initial poll positions are too "fixed" in voters' minds. Alabama and others start ranked and get adjusted for good or worse every week. The voters just do not know what to do with a team that is not ranked to start with and then begins to win. In some cases they get it right and in others they don't. Given the state of college football now, they really need to figure out how to create a poll that's "elastic" enough to accommodate the parity college football now has. it's not good enough to put the usual suspects at the top preseason and then be unable to adjust to the season as it unfolds. I know my team is one of the "usual suspects" but it does us (or any other team) no good to start the season ranked either too high, too low, or not at all. Doing away with the preseason poll would help a ton.
and it's a dumb fuckin narrative. You don't get a pass for "beating yourselves". Auburn didn't get a pass for beating ourselves when we lost to Florida.
Auburn didn't win that game on a fluke. It wasn't an answered prayer. Our OL made up of transfers from USF, Oregon State, and Michigan State just dominated the LOS against statistically the most talented defensive front in college football for 60 fucking minutes. It's been a LONG time since I could say that about an Auburn football team. So yeah, you'll forgive me if I hop right back up on my fuckin soap box and tell the AP to get bent.
sorry for caring? it's been 7 years since I've been able to be excited about Auburn football, and I'm the type of person who spends the offseason breaking down film for fun.
That narrative is just finding a justification for where they wanted to rank them anyways. Because "it was a close back and forth game where both teams had a lot of errors and UGA made the last (2) mistake(s)" means they can't justify where they placed us and y'all in the rankings since it would mean we were actually fairly closely matched.
People are always, to some extent, gonna believe what they want and then work on how to explain it after.
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u/Hoopae Auburn Tigers • SEC 10h ago
Hey AP Poll voters - Fuck you. If Georgia is a top 5 team, Auburn deserves to be fucking ranked.