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In what has turned out to be a rather eventful week for the American Conference, The Roost reported Monday that the league intended to do away with its preseason media poll. The American did not return a request for comment as to why this long-standing tradition was being dropped.
In response, The Roost gathered a representative sample of media members to conduct our own poll, including representation from all 14 programs. Here are the results, with first-place votes in parentheses:
Following a runner-up finish in 2024, Tulane has been named the favorite in 2025. They edge out Navy and Memphis, the only other teams to receive first-place votes. East Carolina is the only program with a new head coach to crack the top half of the poll, coming in at seventh. Florida Atlantic, Rice, Charlotte, Temple and Tulsa bring up the next group of new coaches in their first year in the league.
When asked for comment as to why the league abruptly stopped the poll, commissioner Tim Pernetti called it an “industry-wide trend” although at this point, the American marks just the second of 12 conferences to step away from an annual preseason poll of this sort.
Pernetti went on to elaborate, saying, “The reason we’re moving away from this now, I think it’s more difficult to actually put your finger on how this should look, given that rosters look dramatically different every year. The transfer portal has created a lot of uncertainty and chaos.”
Head Coach: Ryan Silverfield
Record at School: 42-20 (5 Yr) | Career FBS Record 42-20 (5 Yr)
Offensive Coordinator: Tim Cramsey | Defensive Coordinator: Jordon Hankins