Texas Tops The First Official OutKick Top-12 College Football Poll

OutKick has officially launched a new college football poll that will run weekly after every crazy weekend of action, with fourteen panelists that will provide their top-12 teams each week. Now, we have put together a fantastic list of names to participate in this weekly poll, and I can assure you that there will be some disagreements. 

The best part about this new Top-12 is that we want your feedback on how the teams are ranked, especially since we don't have the old BCS formula to rely on. Now, we won't be convening on zoom each week as the college football playoff committee will start doing later this season. But, we will have Clay Travis holding-court to discuss the picks, and act as our spokesperson on his daily show, mainly to take the heat if someone goes a little overboard with their poll selections. 

After another wild weekend of college football, the biggest question I had, besides the status of Billy Napier as head coach of the Florida Gators, is what the pollsters think about the number one spot this week. Following a 13-12 win over Kentucky, the Georgia Bulldogs looked like a team with some problems on offense, while Texas ran through UTSA with Arch Manning playing most of the game. 

AUSTIN, TX - SEPTEMBER 14: Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) runs the ball for a touchdown during the first half of the game against the UTSA Roadrunners on September 14, 2024, at Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, TX. (Photo by Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

So, this is the perfect opportunity for the Longhorns to overtake the Dawgs as the number one team in the country. Also, we have to give credit to Missouri for securing the win over Boston College in the only top-25 matchup of the weekend. 

Here is the list of voters that OutKick has put together. 

• Clay Travis
• Trey Wallace
• Chad Withrow
• Jonathan Hutton
• Dan Dakich
• Les Miles
• Brock Huard
• Tim Brando
• Lou Holtz
• Tommy Tuberville
• Jeannine Edwards
• Will Cain
• Ricky Cobb
• Kelly Stewart

So if you have any problems with how they voted, make sure to reach out to them on social media, and don't blame the writer, thanks. 

The OutKick Top-12 Poll, Week Three

After crunching the numbers of all fourteen participants, the initial OutKick poll is now official. Judging by Texas sitting at the top, I think some of the voters were impressed by the Longhorns offense with Arch Manning, who looks to be the guy next weekend as well, with Quinn Ewers dealing with a strained abdomen. 

Here are the teams that received votes, but did not make it into the poll. 

• Kansas State
• Oklahoma State
• Notre Dame
• Memphis
• Indiana

I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised that USC is ranked before Missouri in this first poll, which was calculated by votes tallied. The win over LSU to open the season was nice, but I think we've seen that the Tigers might be a bit of fools gold this season, at least based off their comeback win over South Carolina this past weekend. 

Also, Missouri defeated a top-25 team this past weekend, in Boston College. So ranking them behind USC feels like they’ve been slighted a bit. We'll find out this weekend if the Trojans are truly a top-10 team, with their first Big Ten game against Michigan. 

How Each Expert Voted This Week

Ok, I know you want to know how each of these guest pickers put together their poll, so here it is. A complete breakdown of each spot, but every one of our pollsters. 

You can expect these Top-12 polls every Monday, and when the college football playoff committee starts putting together their selections, I have a feeling they’ll be taking a look at what OutKick has to say. 

Les Miles and Tommy Tuberville really went out on a ledge by putting Notre Dame in their top-12. Did they not catch the Northern Illinois upset of the Fighting Irish two weeks ago? I don't know if beating Purdue gets you back into the graces of the twelve best teams, but I certainly haven’t coached college football. Maybe they see something in this team that I don’t.  

Dan Dakich decided that Indiana was worthy of being ranked 10th in his poll, but the Hoosiers have played FIU, Western Illinois and UCLA. That's certainly not worthy enough of being ranked in the top-25, let alone the 12th team in the country. But, I'm sure there's a reason for the madness, and they could certainly get into the conversation this season. 

There's also a good amount of love for Kansas State, from Kelly Stewart, Jeannine Edwards and Will Cain, which is hard to argue with, coming off the win over Arizona this past Friday. 

As you can tell, there will be varying opinions each week, and that's one of the reasons why we decided to do this. We are definitely getting into the meat of the season, as week four approaches with a number of intriguing matchups. So, I'll be curious to see how much changes over the next seven days. 

See ya next week! Enjoy another wild weekend of college football.