Where ESPN’s Rece Davis ranked the Tennessee Vols and the Alabama Crimson Tide on his AP Top 25 ballot
Rece Davis, an Alabama graduate who serves as the host of ESPN’s College GameDay, received some flak from Tennessee Vols fans in August for not including the Big Orange on his preseason AP Top 25 ballot. Davis, however, made some big changes to his Top 25 after Week 1 of the 2025 season. Tennessee, which […]
Rece Davis, an Alabama graduate who serves as the host of ESPN’s College GameDay, received some flak from Tennessee Vols fans in August for not including the Big Orange on his preseason AP Top 25 ballot.
Davis, however, made some big changes to his Top 25 after Week 1 of the 2025 season.
Tennessee, which went from No. 24 to No. 22 in the new AP Top 25, is ranked at No. 24 on Davis’ ballot.
Davis had Alabama ranked at No. 7 on his preseason ballot. But after a season-opening loss to Florida State, Davis dropped the Crimson Tide from his Top 25.
Prominent ESPN analyst unveils new top 25 rankings that include Tennessee Vols
Here’s Davis’ full Top 25 ballot:
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Miami
- Penn State
- Clemson
- Texas
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
- Oregon
- Illinois
- Arizona State
- SMU
- Florida
- Iowa State
- Texas Tech
- Oklahoma
- Indiana
- Michigan
- Florida State
- Texas A&M
- South Carolina
- TCU
- South Florida
- Tennessee
- Auburn
It’s still a bit early for accurate rankings — we simply don’t know enough about these teams yet to say that Illinois, for example, should be ranked 14 spots higher than Tennessee. Maybe that turns out to be a good call by Davis — we’ll see in the coming months — but that could be a ranking that easily ends up looking silly by the end of the season.
Kudos to Davis, though, for dropping Alabama from his top 25. Alabama didn’t do anything in its 31-17 loss to Florida State in Week 1 to show that it deserved to be ranked, which is why it’s baffling that the Tide are ranked one spot above the Vols this week.
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