Hello, fellow Sickos Committee members! You likely followed this really silly social media account over the off-season and didn’t know what you fully stumbled into. Well, we welcome you to the Sickos Committee, and now it’s time to vote for the 2025 Sickos Preseason Poll!

For veterans of the poll and our long time followers, welcome back, and it is time to vote again as the season is upon us!

You may ask yourself, "Well, what the hell is a “Sickos” team anyway?”

Well, that’s completely up to you!

Keep in mind that these are the teams YOU want to watch during the season based on whatever you deem “unconventionally appealing” reasons.

Where someone in their right mind might only tune in for Oregon at Penn State or Alabama at Georgia and then go about their weekend. We’re a bit different here. We’re on the couch for 12 hours or more if there is a Hawaii Test on a Saturday. We’re watching all the midweek MACtion and Thursday night games.

We’re the “Sickos” of the college football world, watching as much of it as we can, no matter who is playing, what channel the game is on, or the time. We get just as hyped for Dayton vs. Marist, Incarnate Word vs. Lamar, Montana State vs. Montana, Akron vs. Kent State, ULM vs. Southern Miss, and really any other game you can name, the same way most normal folks do for a Top 25 match-up.

This isn't ironic, and we truly love it all. We know we only get about four months of this out of the year, and we’d be begging for a game, any game, no matter who was playing in mid-April or May.

Furthermore, we ultimately understand that this is likely the last chance for most of the players get to play football, a game we so dearly love, for the last time in their lives. So, why not celebrate every moment of it?

Here are some questions to ask to try to get you into a “Sickos” voting mindset to vote in the poll.

Is it a team that has a coach on the hot seat or maybe a team that has already fired their coach? Maybe a team that you think is ranked too high in the AP or Coaches poll, and you think they will flame out or maybe they shouldn’t be ranked at all? How about a team that was maybe cursed by losing in Ireland? A Power 5 team that lost to a G5 team? A G5 team that lost FCS team in the first few weeks of the season? An FCS team that lost to an NAIA team? Maybe a team who hired a former legendary NFL Coach, who has a girlfriend who is far from the same age and was the subject of multiple Pablo Torre Finds Out episodes and the season isn’t really going that well? A school who just had their Athletic Director leave suddenly and now the Head Coach is the interim Athletic Director? A team that had a really rough year last year but, for some reason, kept their head coach? How about a team who has to travel cross country a ton due to the crazy conference realignment? Maybe a team who tried to go to FBS but couldn’t get an invite to a conference? Or a team where you’re incredibly confused what they are doing this year? Maybe a team who has an interim coach for this year only? Maybe a team who hasn’t started 1-3 in a long long time? Or a team’s Coach who makes baffling clock management decisions?

Now, Sickos can mean many things, and being a “Sickos” team isn’t always a bad thing. Here are some possible examples of being a “good” Sickos team.

A team that is unexpectedly good and caused some chaos to start the year? Maybe the two new teams to FBS actually being pretty good? Is it a plucky G5 team that played spoiler this year and has an outside chance of sneaking in the into the College Football Playoff? How about a team Is it a team that hasn’t been ranked in an incredibly long time but has been receiving votes? Is it a team that played in the most one possession games so far, and you think that will continue? What about a team who has played in multiple overtime games already? Maybe a team that you think will flirt with bowl eligibility for the first time in a while? It could be a team that upset many teams unexpectedly but couldn’t win normal games? What about a team who has played in two overtime games in a row?Or maybe a team who pulled off a big win by going for two? Maybe a team who has scored a safety in two straight weeks? How about an FCS team taking down an FBS team? Or maybe a team winning their first game since 2022 or 2023 (two different teams here)?

Or maybe you have random reasons for voting for Sickos teams.

Maybe it is a team with the strangest week to week game preview? Maybe a team with a Maccoon for a Turnover chain? Maybe they threw a halftime Hail Mary after a punt doinked off their returners helmet? Maybe Commish sings the song in honor of their football team winning in different area codes? Maybe Commish won’t stop talking about this New Jersey based FCS team? Or a team that dumped goalposts into their president’s backyard pool after a walk off winning field goal? What about a punter clothes-lining the crap out of a punt returner? Maybe a team who was undefeated in their first ever season before opening conference play? A team with a kicker who learned how to kick from YouTube? A team with a tight end who learned how to play from YouTube?

You ultimately get to decide who are your Top 10 Sickos teams are based on whatever criteria you use. Since “Sickos” is incredibly undefinable, the choice is up to you and who you feel has earned your vote.

(If you feel like some team or person is really Sickos in another sport like Formula 1, NASCAR, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, etc., you can submit those choices in your ballot also, and we will track those categories in others receiving votes.)

We really love it when you pick 10 different teams/people/places or things!

Also, we ask you to not be derogatory, please, as we will remove those items from the poll, and they will NOT be listed.

We’re “Sickos” because we watch all the games, and we’re not Sickos who make fun of real-life situations, which are sensitive in nature.

Basically, don’t be a jerk with your votes, this is supposed to be all fun and mainly vibes based.

Also, any votes for politicians or politics-based votes WILL BE THROWN OUT. So, be nice to our Lord of the Spreadsheets Kevin, who tallies all these votes up.

Again, we call ourselves Sickos because we try to watch all the games, no matter what the records are, because we support all the teams, except our no good rivals 😉 . We try to keep this poll for on-the-field reasons or in-the-stands reasons only.

(We require a Google sign-in to try to limit everyone to one ballot per person to avoid ballot stuffing, and we do NOT collect email addresses.)

Please don’t vote for the same team in every slot. No ballot stuffing please.

Also, you only have to vote for your Top 5 Sickos Teams, but we grant you the chance to select up to 10 teams because we know keeping track of 10 things from this season can be tough.

Wherever you place them in the poll, that team would get a corresponding amount of votes:

• 1st place = 10 pts.

• 2nd place = 9 pts.

• 3rd place = 8 pts.

• 4th place = 7 pts.

• 5th place = 6 pts.

• 6th place = 5 pts.

• 7th place = 4 pts.

• 8th place = 3 pts.

• 9th place = 2 pts.

• 10th place = 1 pt.

We will close the poll on Wednesday October 2nd at 7 pm CT and tabulate the votes.

Thank you for participating and we cannot wait for the results of the poll! Also, we will do this for November and then our Final Poll before the Bowl Games during championship week.

At the end of the season and we crown a Sickos National Champion, then we will do a food drive for the winning city of the Sickos Champion. Last year we raised around $11,500.00 for a local Tallahassee food bank for our Florida State Champions. We will do it again and we will likely give away some exclusive swag for a certain dollar donation. I think we’ve raised about $40,000 total in all our years doing this poll.

Link to subscribe to the Sickos Committee Patreon to rank the games on a weekly basis.

If you needed inspiration, here was the 2025 Preseason Poll (including the others receiving votes, which we try our best to list them out but this is a manual process):

Thank you for reading and your support!