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ESPN's SEC bias reaches preposterous proportions after Ohio State football victory

Despite Ohio State taking down Texas in the first game of the season, this ESPN analytic still has a clear SEC bias.
ByRyan Stano|
Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin (10) runs during the first half of the NCAA football game against the Texas Longhorns at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30, 2025.
Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin (10) runs during the first half of the NCAA football game against the Texas Longhorns at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30, 2025. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Ohio State football team took down Texas in the first game of the season, winning the game 14-7. While it was more of a defensive grind than many thought it was going to be, all the Buckeyes care about is the fact that they were able to win the first game of the season.

Texas was the top-ranked team in the country heading into this game, while the Ohio State Buckeyes were ranked third. Winning that game should give them the opportunity to jump into the top spot in the polls. Still, ESPN doesn't believe that the Buckeyes are a better tam than the Longhorns.

ESPN's FPI analytic is fraught with bias, as we saw in the preseason. The SEC gets too high a priority in the analytic, and that didn't change even after a couple of the so-called best teams in the conference lost in the opening week of the season.

Ohio State football team fully exposes SEC bias held by ESPN

Despite the fact that the Buckeyes beat Texas, Ohio State is still third in ESPN's FPI. Texas is somehow first. You can check out the full list below.

Having Ohio State not ahead of Texas after beating them on the field is absurd. It's clear who the better team is, since we saw these teams face each other. It's even more dumb to have Alabama still ranked 13th after they got their butts kicked against Florida State.

Anyone who uses this analytic as something to determine who the best teams in the country are shouldn't be put in a position to actually have a voice in college football. This is littered with bias, and it's not something that should help with determining the College Football Playoff.

This is pretty shameless from ESPN. At this point, they aren't even trying to hide their bias with their so-called proprietary data that they use to put together this FPI. The Buckeyes were able to further expose this to the rest of the country, just how bad this data point is.

The fact that Ohio State couldn't even jump Georgia after taking down the top-ranked team in the country should tell you everything you need to know about this flawed analytic. It's something that college football fans shouldn't even bother looking at to determine the best teams in the country.

Ohio State couldn't have had a better start to the season.

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