AP Top 25 Reality Check: SEC, Big Ten grab 16 spots in poll, monopolizing rankings like never before

The Southeastern Conference and Big Ten occupy 64% of this week’s AP Top 25, with 16 ranked teams combined, the most ever by two conferences in one poll.

The third Top 25 of the regular season had a new No. 1 in Texas on Sunday, one of nine SEC teams in the poll. That’s one short of the record 10 the SEC had in the first regular-season poll of 2015. For the second straight week, the SEC has six of the top seven teams.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten matched its best showing in poll history with seven teams, last done Nov. 10, 2019.

Nine of the top-10 teams are from the SEC and Big Ten. No. 8 Miami from the Atlantic Coast Conference is the lone exception.

This was inevitable with the advent of superconferences.

The SEC now has 16 teams and the Big Ten 18, having added perennial powers such as Texas and Oklahoma (SEC) and Oregon and Southern California (Big Ten).

The final AP Top 25 of last season gave a glimpse of what was coming. Twelve of the top 15 teams were going to be in the SEC and Big Ten in 2024.

For those in the ACC and Big 12, combined seven teams

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