CBS Sports coach rankings: Numbers reveal conference biases, polarizing names and our 2025 Hater of the Year

By now, you’ve read our ranking of every Power Four coach in college football. At least, you better have. Seriously, why haven’t you yet? What could you possibly have going on right now that’s more important?

While we’ve been ranking coaches for a decade, this year we’re introducing a new feature. We at CBS Sports are giving you a peek behind the curtain at the voting process with some interesting data from our panel of 10 different voters.

Which coaches had the widest range of votes? Which voters were the most extreme compared to the results? How did the conferences fare against each other in our rankings, and which of our voters showed their true colors when it comes to biases against certain leagues?

It’s all here, all for you to see for yourself. If we rank coaches based on their results, it’s only fair we give everybody a look into the process. 

Complete Power Four coach rankings: 1-25 | 26-68

These coaches have range

We’ll start by looking at the coaches with the largest disparity of opinions among our voters. In a subjective ranking such as this, it’s only natural that voters will have differing opinions. We all have our reasons for ranking coaches the way we do. Some of us prioritize success, some recruiting, and others value coaches who make the most of meager resources.

It shouldn’t be too surprising to see Curt Cignetti on this list as a coach with only one year of Power Four level experience, but a season that included a playoff berth drew a wide range of opinions. There were five coaches tied for 10th at 29 spots: Bret Bielema, Manny Diaz, Pat Narduzzi, Mike Norvell, and Rich Rodriguez.

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. The coaches who don’t vary far in either direction of the ballot.

Unsurprisingly, this list is comprised almost entirely of coaches who finished in the top 10. That’s the thing about putting the ballots together. While we may vary in order, it’s not hard to figure out the coaches at the top of the sport, and it’s easier to rank the ones at the bottom, too. It’s everything in the middle that gets crazy.

Also, here’s a fun fact: Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby finished last in our overall ratings, but as you can see above, he didn’t receive a single last place vote. The only coaches to receive any were Arizona’s Brent Brennan and Stanford’s Frank Reich, but one voter had Reich 59th, which saved him from a last place finish, and doomed Lebby to the bottom.

Conference bias

Fans are convinced the media is biased towards other conferences and against theirs. And you know what? They’re right! Everybody has a bias, no matter how hard they try to avoid it. When you cover a specific league, it’s only natural that you’ll end up holding it in higher or lower esteem than others.

However, we need context. As you’ll see in the table below, the SEC and Big Ten coaches fared far better than those of the ACC and Big 12. Is that bias? Or is it a fact that nine of 11 champions in the playoff era have come from those two conferences? The lone exception was Clemson, and Dabo Swinney is ranked third in our rankings for a reason.

So is it bias toward the conferences, or bias toward success? I’ll let you chew on that one real quick before we move on to the next step.

For those of you who did the math and realized the top 10 was a coach short, that’s because Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman doesn’t belong to a conference.

What kind of bias appears when we break it down by voter? Spoiler alert: I’m a bit biased toward the Big Ten! It’s no surprise to me. It’s the league I grew up watching and it’s the league I know the best.

Where my bias makes itself known is in the middle of the pack. My ballot at the top and bottom is similar to everyone else’s, but when it comes to splitting hairs in that 25-45 range, I gave Big Ten coaches more credit. Sue me!

Here are the average ranking of each coach by conference split by our 10 voters.

Bias Breakdown

Biggest ACC Glazer: Brandon Marcello
Biggest ACC Hater: Tom Fornelli

Biggest Big 12 Glazer: Richard Johnson
Biggest Big 12 Hater: Brandon Marcello

Biggest Big Ten Glazer: Tom Fornelli
Biggest Big Ten Hater: Richard Johnson

Biggest SEC Glazer: Brad Crawford
Biggest SEC Hater: Will Backus

Extreme voters

Now that we’ve exposed the biases within our panel, who amongst us was the most extreme in our opinion?

Richard Johnson’s ballot was the most extreme compared to the final consensus, and I’d like to congratulate Richard for being our 2025 Hater of the Year by being the low voter for 16 different coaches! That’s impressive!

Also, I will accept the 2025 award for Glazer of the Year, as I was the high vote on 16 different coaches.

Most Boring Voter goes to Will Backus, who not only found himself on the outside the least often, but he shared the honors with five of the eight coaches he was “extreme” on. What I mean by that was, he was the high man on Ryan Day, but he was one of eight voters who had Day second. On the flipside, he was one of eight who had Frank Reich 68th. Even Will’s extreme votes were chalk!