CBS Sports coach rankings: Data reveals conference biases, 2026 Hater of the Year

You’ve read our Power Four college football coach rankings by now. At least, you’d better have. This is the eleventh year we’ve done them at CBSSports.com, but last year we started a new tradition.

We gave everybody a peek behind the ballots.

There are 10 voters on our panel, and we all think differently. When you combine those different brains with unclear voting criteria, it leads to significant variance in the results. It also exposes some biases in how we vote. We’re all a little kinder to coaches in certain leagues than we are to others, usually because, in our line of work, we’re more familiar with coaches in certain leagues.

Not just by watching them coach, but through interactions with them.

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 that 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.

While I’m a little surprised to see Jedd Fisch finish with the widest range of outcomes, I’m not shocked to see Pete Golding right behind him. Golding is a very interesting case: he won two playoff games last year but wasn’t the head coach until the playoffs began. So there’s the question of how much credit you give him for that short-term success. Obviously, our opinions varied.

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

As is usually the case, this list comprises the top and bottom coaches in the rankings. There’s rarely much disagreement about who the best coaches are, and it’s easy to slot new guys at the bottom. It’s in that 15-50 range where things get crazy.

Conference bias

Fans are convinced the media is biased towards other conferences and against theirs. And you know what? They’re right!

However, that bias needs additional 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 10 of 12 champions in the playoff era have come from those two conferences? 

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.

Now, you may look at this and think we hate the Big 12, but are you sure? Do we hate the Big 12, or did the Big 12 lose Kyle Whittingham (10th overall), Matt Campbell (16th) and Chris Klieman (14th last season) and replace them with three coaches with no Power Four experience (and two without any head coaching experience)? That’s going to hurt the conference’s overall standing.

Also, if you’re confused why none of the top 10, 25 or 40 columns add up to 10, 25 or 40, it’s because Marcus Freeman doesn’t belong to any conference. Though I’m sure the ACC would love to claim him.

Now, while it’s fun to look at the numbers overall, it’s more fun to break them down by the individual voter. Once again, I am the biggest Big Ten homer of the bunch, but David Cobb and Chip Patterson are closing the gap on me. As for the biggest SEC homer, there is nobody in the same class as Brad Crawford.

Not only is Brad’s average ranking of 27.88 the lowest for SEC coaches, but the second-lowest was also John Talty at 29.44. That’s a 1.56 point difference, and Brad’s average rank is 2.56 points lower than the SEC’s overall average of 30.44.

The next biggest conference homer was Richard Johnson, whose 40.94 average ranking of Big 12 coaches was 1.87 points lower than the league’s average.

Bias breakdown

Biggest ACC Homer: Chip Patterson
Biggest ACC Hater: Brad Crawford

Biggest Big 12 Homer: Richard Johnson
Biggest Big 12 Hater: Chip Patterson

Biggest Big Ten Homer: Tom Fornelli
Biggest Big Ten Hater: Brandon Marcello

Biggest SEC Homer: Brad Crawford
Biggest SEC Hater: Chris Hummer

Let’s get extreme

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

Richard Johnson wins the award for most extreme voter for the second consecutive season, and wins by a country mile. Brandon Marcello was the only one who could even still see RJ as he crossed the finish line.

Alas, RJ does not win the Hater of the Year Award again. Yes, he was the low man on more coaches than anybody else, but he finished as the high man on even more! No, this year’s Hater of the Year goes to John Talty. Talty was the low man on 12 coaches, while being the high man on only six.

He holds hate in his heart!

Also, we have a new award this year for first-time voter Cody Nagel. Congratulations on winning the “I Just Don’t Want To Get Yelled At” Award, Cody. Way to never go out on a limb. Cody was the lowest voter on six different coaches, but four of those were shared with other voters. Neither of his two high votes was solo, either. So Cody stood out only twice.