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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-06-15 13:56:09+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
Going to try a different approach following the suggestion of u/SucculentCrablegMeal
Army (high = 44, low = 79) comes in next at #69, which is a nice enough placement that they held an over the top parade yesterday to celebrate! Jeff Monken will be leading his troops for his 11th season in charge at West Point, and it’s going to be awfully tough to top last season’s perfect run through the AAC, including stomping Tulane in the championship game, before dropping their annual tilt against Navy and whipping Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl and finishing up as the 21st ranked team in the country in the final polls. So why are they coming into this season ranked so much lower?
Roster outlook
Evaluating the rosters of the service academies is always a much tougher challenge than any other in college football, because players don’t really commit in the same manner as every other program. They’re nominated for appointment, usually through a member of Congress, who are definitely NOT ever affiliated with bag men and under the table recruiting payments. That being said, Army did manage to rank 12th in the AAC (130th in the country) in terms of recruiting, outpacing not just Navy but Charlotte (WYD, Niners!). And boy are they going to need some players to step up. Army ranks 86th in the country in returning production, but 21st in the country on defense compared to 119th on offense. Not only is QB (and leading rusher, and Heisman top 10 finalist) Bryson Daily gone to graduation, but their primary RB Kanye Udoh transferred to Arizona State and LB Elo Modozie transferred to Georgia. That’s right - Army may not get players to transfer IN, but they still lose players transferring OUT. When you add in that every WR/TE who caught more than 1 pass is gone, and the Black Knights are really a black hole in terms of predicting how that talent is going to perform on the field in 2025.
Schedule and outlook
Last season, Army rode an amazingly toothless schedule (legitimately the bottom 6 teams in the VERY low floor/high ceiling AAC, plus a down Air Force and an East Carolina squad that was so pissed off about losing to the Black Knights that they immediately fired coach Mike Houston after the loss) to a undefeated start before heading into South Bend and getting drubbed by Notre Dame. This season they won’t get that runway, heading to the Little Apple in week 2 to face Kansas State. The conference schedule also features games @ East Carolina, @ Tulane and @ UTSA (plus traveling to Colorado to face Air Force), so it’s tough to see them replicating last year’s special season while replacing a 4 year starting QB. Still, there’s enough cupcakes on there to get Army back to another bowl in 2025.