Black college football has a new measuring stick. The inaugural Black College Football Poll, released Thursday, July 9, installs defending HBCU national champion South Carolina State as the preseason No. 1 in NCAA Division I (FCS) and CIAA champion Johnson C. Smith as the preseason No. 1 in NCAA Division II.
The poll, which debuts this season, is the first officially endorsed national ranking dedicated exclusively to HBCU football, sanctioned by all four HBCU conferences: the SWAC and MEAC in Division I and the CIAA and SIAC in Division II. The conferences announced the partnership in April, with the commissioners calling it a step toward unifying their leagues on polls and awards.
Rankings are determined by a nationwide panel of HBCU head coaches and media members who cover Black college football, with each voter submitting a top 10. A first-place vote is worth 10 points, second place 9, and so on down to 1 point for 10th place. The poll will be released weekly during the regular season, and the same voting bodies will select preseason and postseason Black College All-American teams in both divisions, as well as awards for coach of the year, offensive and defensive player of the year, and freshman of the year.
Division I: The Celebration Bowl Rematch Sits at the Top
South Carolina State earned 185 points and 36 of the 48 first-place votes cast after a 10-3 season that ended with the program’s second HBCU national title. The Bulldogs erased a 21-point halftime deficit in the 2025 Celebration Bowl and outlasted Prairie View A&M 40–38 in four overtimes at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The team they beat that night sits directly behind them. SWAC champion Prairie View A&M, which reached the Celebration Bowl for the first time in program history, opens at No. 2 with 165 points and two first-place votes, followed by Jackson State at No. 3 and Alabama State at No. 4. Jackson State drew four first-place votes and Alabama State six, meaning voters spread first-place support across four different programs on the first ballot.
| Rank | Institution | Conference | 2025 Record | Points (First-Place Votes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina State | MEAC | 10-3 (5-0) | 185 (36) |
| 2 | Prairie View A&M | SWAC | 10-4 (7-1) | 165 (2) |
| 3 | Jackson State | SWAC | 9-3 (7-1) | 149 (4) |
| 4 | Alabama State | SWAC | 10-2 (7-1) | 141 (6) |
| 5 | North Carolina Central | MEAC | 8-4 (3-2) | 107 |
| 6 | Delaware State | MEAC | 8-4 (4-1) | 98 |
| 7 | Grambling State | SWAC | 7-5 (4-4) | 63 |
| 8 | Bethune-Cookman | SWAC | 6-6 (5-3) | 46 |
| 9 | Texas Southern | SWAC | 6-5 (5-3) | 42 |
| 10 | Florida A&M | SWAC | 5-7 (4-4) | 32 |
Others receiving votes: Alcorn State 15, Howard 13, Alabama A&M 13.
The SWAC claims seven of the ten Division I spots to the MEAC’s three, and nine of the SWAC’s 12 football-playing members appeared on at least one ballot. But the MEAC holds the top line and three of the top six. The balance of power question that hangs over every Celebration Bowl gets its first referendum in the regular season, and the preseason ballot suggests voters see it as a genuinely open race.
Division II: The Golden Bulls Get the Nod, but Voters Are Split
The Division II ballot produced the more interesting vote math. Johnson C. Smith, which claimed its first CIAA football title since 1969 with a 45–21 win over Virginia Union, opens at No. 1 with 168 points and 12 first-place votes. But No. 2 Benedict actually collected more first-place votes, 20, while finishing 11 points back. SIAC champion Albany State, which went 12-2 and defeated Benedict 22–16 in the SIAC championship game before making a Division II playoff run, sits third at 156.
| Rank | Institution | Conference | 2025 Record | Points (First-Place Votes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johnson C. Smith | CIAA | 10-2 (6-1) | 168 (12) |
| 2 | Benedict | SIAC | 10-3 (7-0) | 157 (20) |
| 3 | Albany State | SIAC | 12-2 (8-0) | 156 (4) |
| 4 | Virginia Union | CIAA | 9-3 (7-0) | 154 (7) |
| 5 | Kentucky State | SIAC | 9-3 (7-1) | 112 |
| 6 | Fayetteville State | CIAA | 6-4 (6-1) | 91 |
| 7 | Virginia State | CIAA | 6-4 (4-3) | 66 |
| 8 | Allen | SIAC | 6-5 (5-3) | 60 |
| 9 | Edward Waters | SIAC | 5-5 (4-4) | 53 |
| 10 | Tuskegee | SIAC | 4-7 (3-7) | 17 (1) |
Others receiving votes: Livingstone (5-5, 3-4) 10.
The top four Division II teams are separated by just 14 points, the tightest cluster anywhere in either poll. The SIAC placed six teams in the top 10 to the CIAA’s four, and one voter gave a first-place nod to Tuskegee, which went 4-7 a year ago under the weight of one of the sport’s most demanding schedules.
Why a Unified Poll Matters
HBCU football has never lacked for rankings, but it has lacked one that all four conferences stand behind. A single sanctioned poll gives the national championship conversation a shared reference point from July through the postseason, in both divisions, and the weekly cadence should keep Division II programs in the national conversation rather than treating them as an afterthought.
The programs at the top of these polls are ones we track closely. Our 2024-25 athletics revenue and expense dashboards cover every Division I program in the FCS poll, and our conference economics dashboard breaks down how the MEAC and SWAC distribute the revenue that fuels this rivalry.
How the Voters Compare to the Model
The BCFP’s preseason ballot also gives us a chance to check the voters against the math. Last season, our Data Driven HBCU Top-5 ranked all 21 Division I HBCU football programs each week using a five-factor model built on schedule strength, head-to-head results, quality wins, adjusted winning percentage, and point differential.
The final 2025 rankings and the BCFP’s preseason top four are identical: South Carolina State, Prairie View A&M, Jackson State, and Alabama State, in that order. The only difference in the top five is at the last spot, where our model placed Delaware State fifth, and North Carolina Central sixth, and the BCFP voters flipped them.
The Data Driven HBCU Top-5 returns for the 2026 season in August, so readers will be able to follow both views of the race all fall: what the coaches and media see on the BCFP ballot, and what the model says the results actually support. The on-field race starts in late August. The first regular-season edition of each poll will tell us how quickly the preseason consensus holds up.
