College football’s national champion made AP rankings history with perfect season

Indiana made plenty of college football history in its remarkable undefeated national championship season, including when it comes to the preseason rankings.

Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The magical undefeated run by Indiana to the college football national championship made unprecedented history not only for the program, but in the process also struck another blow to the preseason prediction industry.

Indiana is riding high as the king of college football after completing an historic 16-0 national title season, becoming the first major program to win that many games in 132 years, since Yale last ran the table in 16 games way, way back in 1894.

In those days, they didn’t have the AP top 25 poll to give fans an idea of who belonged where, but even the modern day brain trust that put those rankings together this past summer failed to truly consider what the Hoosiers had in store once they took the field.

All those months ago when the AP poll ballots went out to be filled with the 2025 season still ahead of them, the voters entrusted with the rankings thought enough of the Hoosiers to name them the No. 20 team in the country.

As it turns out, that was officially the second-least accurate decision the voters made in the BCS or College Football Playoff eras when judging eventual national champions.

Indiana makes more history

Indiana’s No. 20 position is the second-lowest of any preseason-ranked team in that time, since 1998, that went on to win the national title.

The record holder? That’s still Auburn, which debuted as the No. 22 team in the preseason AP poll back in 2010, only to run the table, hand Cam Newton the Heisman Trophy, and win the national title by beating Oregon.

Indiana and Auburn are the only college football teams that ranked 20th or below in a preseason poll before eventually winning the national championship.

The third-lowest ranked preseason team to go all the way was back at the start of the 21st century, when Oklahoma was initially ranked No. 19 in the first AP poll before hoisting the trophy in what remains the Sooners’ most recent title.

Where other teams ranked

LSU back in 2003 was the fourth-lowest ranked such team, debuting at No. 14 in the preseason poll before winning the BCS national championship, although the AP voters chose USC as their champion, resulting in a split title that year.

Ohio State emerged as the No. 13 team in the 2002 preseason poll before going all the way, while Florida State’s 2013 team was ranked No. 11 in its title year, and Tennessee was the No. 10 team in the 1998 preseason poll before winning the first-ever BCS title.

Lowest AP Preseason Ranking by National Champions in BCS/CFP history

2010: Auburn (22)
2025: Indiana (20)
2000: Oklahoma (19)
2003: LSU (14)
2002: Ohio State (13)
2013: Florida State (11)
1998: Tennessee (10)

— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) January 21, 2026

Where champions rank the next season

Some potential more good news for the Hoosiers? College football teams that win the national championship are themselves highly ranked the following preseason.

No reigning champion has ranked below No. 10 in the succeeding preseason AP poll since Auburn’s title team placed 23rd in the first rankings back in 2011.

When taking an average of every national champion from Ohio State in 2025 back to Alabama in 2012, the average preseason position for a champ is 2.57 in the first poll.

Only two such teams -- Michigan in 2024 and LSU in 2020 -- placed outside the top-five the following preseason.