Greg McElroy accuses AP voters of disrespecting Auburn in preseason poll

The annual release of the Associated Press’ Preseason Top 25 Poll is often hailed as the true unofficial start of the college football season, as teams and fan bases alike get a better perspective on where they stand entering Fall. That was certainly the case Monday when the AP’s 2025 Preseason Poll confirmed Texas‘ place as the country’s consensus No. 1 team ahead of the Big Ten powers Penn State and defending national champion Ohio State.

But for those teams and fan bases that didn’t make the cut, being left out of the AP’s initial Top 25 can often spark a sense of national disrespect. ESPN analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy dove head-first into that disrespect during Monday’s episode of his podcast, Always College Football with Greg McElroy, specifically calling out the AP voters for effectively ranking Auburn as the country’s No. 37 team as the 12th team among the AP’s “others receiving votes” list.

“The other team I feel is really being slept on is Auburn. If you look at where they were last year, how many games were just flat out given away – just given away,” McElroy began, citing five-interception games against Cal and Arkansas last season, as well as one-score losses vs. Oklahoma and at Missouri. “It’s just, there’s no way (Auburn) can be as snakebit as they were last year. The football gods won’t allow, it’s not likely. I guess it can happen, Nebraska fans are like ‘We’ve been that way for awhile now, we’ve lost a lot of one-score games.’ I get it, so I understand it can happen for sure.”

Auburn is coming off a season in which the Tigers missed bowl eligibility for the second time in the last three seasons, finishing 5-7 overall and just 2-6 in SEC play in Hugh Freeze‘s second year as head coach.

At this point, McElroy addressed all the ways Auburn addressed clear roster issues this past offseason, including landing the No. 7 overall transfer class of 2025, according to the On3 | Rivals Industry Team Transfer Portal Rankings. Among the Tigers’ biggest transfer additions were QB Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma) and receiver Eric Singleton (Georgia Tech). It’s because of these additions that McElroy is higher on Auburn that the AP voters, including ranking the Tigers No. 20 in his personal preseason Top 25 released last week.

“But you look at where Auburn had challenges last year, they had challenges at quarterback, they were inconsistent at wide receiver, they were inconsistent on the offensive line, and then defensively at all three levels they were pretty solid. The offensive line has been solidified. That group is back mostly intact with a couple of high-profile transfers. You look at the receiver position, they bring in a game-breaker in Eric Singleton from Georgia Tech. So that group has immediately gone from a middle-tier group in the SEC to one of the top groups in the SEC at the wide receiver spot,” McElroy continued. “And at quarterback, with the challenges they had with turnovers last year, I know Jackson Arnold had his fair share of challenges with turnovers at Oklahoma, but it sounds like those things are kind of a thing of the past. So hopefully they’re going to get better quarterback play, they’re going to have better weapons, the offensive line is going to be better. The one position that is not as good as last year is running back, but they have some depth at that position as well.

“So I look at Auburn and for them to be 5, 8, 11, 12 spots – so basically 37^th in college football – to me is way too far (down),” McElroy concluded. “I think Auburn has a chance to be a Top 25 team. I don’t think they’re a (College Football) Playoff team, but they have a chance to be a Top 25 team for sure. Especially with the pieces that’ve improved from last year to this year.”