College football rankings: Updated Week 8 ESPN FPI rankings leave fans in disbelief

The three constants in life-- death, taxes, and college football fans taking umbrage with ESPN's FPI rankings. The post-Week 8 rankings are subject to the usual level of confusion, dislogic, and the sort of college football rankings that a group of AI-computerized monkeys might get if they tired of typing Shakespeare. The only thing that makes the FPI bearable is, apparently, complaining about it.

Four loss teams?

The top 25 of FPI includes a pair of 3-4 teams, Penn State at No. 21 and Auburn at No. 23. Even their own fans think this is frankly insane.

No poll has any credibility with Auburn ranked in it. <--- That coming from a 50 year Auburn Fan.
— Ron Dorriety (@RDorriety) October 19, 2025

Penn state has lost 4 in a row. How do they make this list here? Whatever metrics that this uses is utterly broken.
— Daniel C (@chiefeagle202) October 19, 2025

Penn State hasn't beat a single P4 team and has 4 losses 😂
— H2P (@pgh_cards_) October 19, 2025

Conference chaos

FPI doesn't seem to figure out conference battles very well either. Oregon lurks ahead of the Indiana team that beat them. Two-loss Texas squeaked to an overtime win over Kentucky and sits ahead of Texas A&M and its 7-0 record. The computers seem to oddly value of devalue teams in the same league.

So Oregon is two spots ahead of an undefeated conference rival that just curb stomped them, two 2-loss teams ahead of the only remaining undefeated SEC team that beat one of the two loss teams on the road and a 4-loss team in the top 25? This is just “name brands” ESPN likes.
— Jefelikesbeer (@jefelikesbeer) October 19, 2025

Oregon being ahead of Indiana when they lost the head to head literally a week ago is another reason why these have ZERO credibility
— Clay (@ckilla540) October 19, 2025

Texas ahead of A&M? pic.twitter.com/2a7DPCKZqj
— Greg Bergeron (@AggieGreg06) October 19, 2025

Not passing the beauty contest

Another big facet of FPI criticism (which is entirely deserved) is that the computer seems slow to the party to recognize the accomplishments of teams that might not be expected powers. For instance, 7-0 Georgia Tech, which may crack the AP top 10, is nowhere in FPI's top 25. (In the interest of full disclosure, Tech is No. 26). 6-1 Vanderbilt, off a top 10 win, sits at No. 18, three spots above 3-4 Penn State.

And how in the hell do you not have GA Tech in the top 10 let alone top 25? WOW. I’m a big Dawg fan but let’s give credit where credit is due.
— MAGAMAHA (@paul50498872) October 19, 2025

Where is Georgia Tech?
— Joe Ingeno (@JoeIngeno) October 19, 2025

The disrespect toward Vanderbilt is insane , they defeated LSU (10) and Vandy dropped to 18 , while Texas escaped in OT by 3 points in KY , one of the worst teams in the SEC and Mizzou escaped in OT too
— Walter (@Walteragxuc) October 19, 2025

But as usual, the top level FPI trolling takes a broad shot at the whole system... and there are plenty of those.

A rare behind the scenes look at ESPN selecting their FPI rankings! pic.twitter.com/PpJbmRzz7M
— “I” the Bucket! (@JohnLucht30) October 19, 2025

pic.twitter.com/Vs5BZuUmRR
— BPJ (@bpjauburn) October 19, 2025

pic.twitter.com/Kk0DARQBWA
— Shawn (@ShawnTAMU09) October 19, 2025