Iowa State’s first preseason AP Top 25 without Matt Campbell is exactly what you’d expect: no ranking, no votes, and a fresh start that comes with plenty of uncertainty.
The Cyclones are set to open the Jimmy Rogers era on Sept. 5 at Jack Trice Stadium against Southeast Missouri State, and the changeover has been dramatic. Rogers steps into a major rebuild after Campbell, the most successful head coach in program history, left Ames after 10 years to take over at Penn State.
He did not make the move alone. Nearly the entire coaching staff followed him, and a large chunk of the eligible players who entered the transfer portal went with them, leaving Iowa State with a stripped-down roster.
That’s why the preseason poll came back the way it did. In the AP’s first top 25 of the year, 50 programs received at least one vote - Iowa State was not one of them. It’s a sharp drop from a year ago, when the Cyclones entered 2025 at No. 23 and had a number beside their name in Game 1 for the first time since 2021.
Trying to pin down what this team will actually look like in September is close to impossible. There are so many new pieces in place that the real question isn’t just who will start, but how quickly the group can come together once the games begin.
Still, Iowa State isn’t walking into this with no reason for optimism. Rogers brings a track record of winning, built at South Dakota State before his one-season stop with Washington State.
And the roster churn in Pullman last year offers at least a loose blueprint for what Ames might look like now. Washington State also went through a major overhaul under Rogers, and that team still managed seven wins, including a bowl victory, under interim head coach Jesse Bobbit, who is now Iowa State’s defensive coordinator.
There is some familiarity baked into the new Cyclones roster, too. Several former Washington State players followed Rogers to Iowa State, giving the program at least a small foundation to build on.
The challenge, though, is obvious. The Big 12 has real depth, and the preseason rankings reflect that.
Texas Tech is the league’s highest-ranked team at No. 12, followed by BYU at No. 14.
Utah sits at No. 21 and Houston at No. 23.
Arizona, TCU and Oklahoma State were among the other Big 12 teams to receive votes.
At the top of the national picture, Ohio State and Oregon hold the first two spots in the poll, while the SEC leads all conferences with nine ranked teams. Penn State, where Campbell landed, checked in at No. 18 as the seventh-highest-ranked Big Ten team.
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