specifically 1st, 2nd, 2rd teams etc...

I know nothing about sports but I'm intrigued by the poltics of of university football teams.

Like the itneractions between the 1st team and their underlings.

I thought the 1st team is meant to be the 'best' one but why do you get the case where a uni's 2nd or 3rd team is the uni's 'best' team and you get situations where for example "LSE 2nd team beat UCL's 1st team last week"...or in the leauge tables 2nd or 3rd teams are higher than the 1sts teams.

I don't get it