Four weeks into the college football season and five AP top 25 poll rankings in and it shouldn’t be hard to find fraudulent teams in the rankings. Each week, a top 25 team has ended up losing and getting booted either to the bottom of the rankings or out all together. And the teams that lose outside of the top 10 have pretty much been annexed from the rankings as well.
This year, there’s more parity than any other season it feels like, definitely this early into the year, which means it’s only a matter of time before more ranked teams fall short of their expectations. This is a fraud watch for the five teams that haven’t played anybody and are raising the alarm.
Conference schedules are about to pick up so that means games should get a little bit tougher, but for these five teams, they haven’t played anybody and once they get that first test, it will prove we don’t need to be hyping them up anymore.
Fraud Watch: These five teams are in for a rude awakening during conference play
No. 6 Oregon Ducks
The Oregon Ducks might be the next top 10 team to go down this year. The Ducks have looked extremely dominant against horrible teams this year and it’s setting them up for a rude awakening against Penn State. Last year, Penn State played the Ducks close in the Big Ten Championship Game, and last year’s Oregon team was better than this year’s team.
I’m not sold on Dante Moore yet and while Dakorien Moore looks every bit like the best receiver in the 2026 class, until the Ducks play a real defense, I wouldn’t be too confident in them yet. We’ll see how legit this Oregon team is against Penn State, until then, they’re on Fraud Watch.
No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels
I won’t be fooled by Ole Miss for a second straight year. Last year, they looked like they’d be one of the many SEC teams to land in the College Football Playoff, yet they lost to Florida at the end of the year, which ended that. This year, they don’t feel as good as they were a year ago, which is why their weak non-conference schedule is going to catch up to them.
They already have one SEC win, taking down Kentucky, but it was only a seven-point win. Austin Simmons hasn’t looked great this year either, though he’s been able to get by, thanks to inferior opponents to start the year. Lane Kiffin’s team will get exposed at some point and it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.
No. 14 Iowa State Cyclones
Iowa State has one possession wins against three of their four opponents and none of them are currently ranked. Their three-point win over Kansas State doesn’t look that great either at this point, after the Wildcats have yet to beat an FBS team this year and are 1-3. Iowa State gave away their College Football Playoff bid last year with late season losses to Texas Tech and Kansas and then got blown out by Arizona State in the Big 12 championship game. It’s not a matter of if, rather when will Iowa State lose.
No. 18 Vanderbilt Commodores
I think they are a tough team to beat, but not ready to cash them in as a top 20 team just yet. The four games after Utah State this week will truly tell us how good Vandy is. They have Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Texas in succession. They need at least two wins to show me they’re worthy of being one of the top teams in the SEC.
No. 20 Missouri Tigers
Missouri doesn’t have a ranked win yet this year so we’ll see here soon how good they’re going to be this year. I have the same feeling about them that I do Oregon. They need better competition before I’m ready to say Missouri is one of the top teams in the SEC. They have Alabama in a few weeks, and that will be a good test. That said, they have four ranked games this year, they have to get at least two ranked wins for me to feel good about them. Until then, they probably shouldn’t creep too far inside the top 20 rankings.