Best of the rest: Boise State tops Group of Six preseason poll. What’s that mean?

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Boise State football just missed out on The Associated Press’ preseason Top 25 rankings, but there seems to be a national consensus that the Broncos are the top team among the Group of Six conferences.

HERO Sports releases a weekly football top 25 that ranks teams from the Group of Six conferences — the Pac-12, American, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Conference USA and Mid-American. Boise State was the highest-voted G6 team for the AP poll, ranking 28th, and the Broncos are No. 1 in the HERO Sports poll.

The Broncos received 16 of the 20 first-place votes in that Group of Six poll, and no other team received more than one. Boise State’s standing is notable because of how the College Football Playoff will work this year. In previous years, a playoff spot was guaranteed to the highest-ranked G6 conference champion — which, in 2024, was the Broncos.

That rule has been tweaked, however. Now a conference championship isn’t required — the playoff spot simply will go to the highest-ranked G6 team after the conference championship games, as determined by the CFP committee’s rankings.

It’s still highly likely that the G6 playoff representative will be a conference champion, but that’s hard to predict. A G6 team could have a perfect regular season, or even a one-loss regular season, and be upset in its league title game, but still be the highest-ranked squad by the committee from the non-power conferences.

Who could be some of the Broncos’ main rivals for that playoff spot?

HERO Sports voters deemed former Mountain West foe UNLV as the second-best G6 team. The Rebels, who didn’t receive any first-place votes, are certainly no strangers to competition with the Broncos, having lost three straight MW title games to them.

Navy (American) is ranked third in the HERO poll, with New Mexico (Mountain West) and Memphis (American) rounding out the top five.

Boise State hosts Memphis at Albertsons Stadium in Week 2 in a matchup that could have CFP implications in the G6. The Broncos also travel to reigning Mid-American champions Western Michigan in Week 4. The WMU Broncos were ranked all the way down at 16th in the HERO poll.

The next-best Pac-12 team in the HERO Sports poll? San Diego State was 8th.

Other teams from the revived Pac-12 in the preseason poll were Fresno State (12th), Texas State (17th) and Washington State (22nd).

HERO Sports’ top 25

Here are the full rankings.
1. Boise State (Pac-12)
2. UNLV (Mountain West)
3. Navy (American)
4. New Mexico (Mountain West)
5. Memphis (American)
6. James Madison (Sun Belt)
7. UTSA (American)
8. San Diego State (Mountain West)
9. East Carolina (American)
10. Army (American)
11. Tulane (American)
12. Fresno State (Pac-12)
13. Hawaii (Mountain West)
14. South Florida (American)
15. North Dakota State (Mountain West)
16. Western Michigan (Mid-American)
17. Texas State (Pac-12)
18. Miami (OH) (Mid-American)
19. Air Force (Mountain West)
20. Troy (Sun Belt)
21. Old Dominion (Sun Belt)
22. Washington State (Pac-12)
23. Western Kentucky (Conference USA)
24. Jacksonville State (Conference USA)
25. Marshall (Sun Belt)