Mel Kiper's FIRST TOP-25 BIG BOARD RANKINGS of 2026 NFL Draft Class! w/Field Yates

First Draft

ESPN Radio

Sports

4.2 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome back to "First Draft." Hosted by Mike Greenberg, Field Yates and Mel Kiper Jr., we're running through Mel's first Top-25 Big Board Rankings of the 2025-26 college football season. (0:00) Welcome to First Draft (0:55) Takeaways from Week 7 (2:26) No. 1: Oregon QB Dante Moore (6:46) No. 2: Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love (11:01) No. 3: Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza (15:58) No. 4: Ohio State LB Arvell Reese (19:36) No. 6: USC WR Makai Lemon (23:38) No. 9: Miami Edge Rueben Bain Jr. (29:24) No. 13: Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy (32:05) No. 16: Alabama QB Ty Simpson (36:43) No. 21: South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers (42:12) No. 23: Georgia LB C.J. Allen (43:49) Arch Manning left off Mel's Big Board (48:12) Final thoughts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Talk about stepping up.
0:02.2	Bang!
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0:05.9	Introducing the all new ESPN app.
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0:20.2	It's the ultimate fan experience.
0:22.6	Level up for more on the ESPN app or at stream.esPN.com.
0:27.7	Sign up now.
0:30.0	Ladies and gentlemen, the big board has arrived.
0:34.1	Mel Kuyper's first top 25 ranking is hot off the presses. Who is the top prospect
0:40.0	in the country? We'll answer that question and many more coming up. Plus, as always, we'll respond
0:44.9	to your questions, your takes and your draft dreams live as first draft starts right now.
0:51.3	Hi, everybody. We are back in Better Than Everett's first draft.
0:54.3	I'm Greenie and Mel and Field.
0:56.0	And this is the moment we have all been waiting for.
0:58.8	Up until now, all of this has just been so much fluff.
1:01.9	We're talking about people, but we don't have rankings.
1:04.7	Well, that as of today, has officially changed.
1:07.7	Mel has his first big board, which to me signals all as well with the world.
	...

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