Preseason college football rankings are a talking point, not gospel. Nobody has played a snap yet. Voters are guessing off rosters, returning starters and schedules. The 2026 preseason Coaches Poll came out on Aug. 4. The AP Top 25 arrives Monday at noon ET. Both are fun to argue about, but history says hold them loosely.
Three of the last four preseason No. 1 teams in the Coaches Poll never reached the College Football Playoff. Only two teams this century have opened No. 1 in the AP Poll and finished as national champions.
Greg McElroy puts Ohio State at No. 1 in his preseason top 10
ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy unveiled his top 10 this week on his Always College Football podcast. He ranked Ohio State first, then Notre Dame, Indiana, Oregon and Miami. Georgia was his highest-ranked SEC team at No. 6. Texas came in seventh, followed by Alabama, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma.
McElroy opened the show with a warning about his own list. “Every single year we put together a top 10 and someone in that top 10, at least one, maybe two, they won’t be ranked by season’s end,” McElroy said.
The Ohio State case starts with two Heisman contenders. Quarterback Julian Sayin threw for more than 3,600 yards last season and completed 77% of his passes as a first-year starter. Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith caught 87 passes for more than 1,200 yards and 12 touchdowns. The Miami native has led the Buckeyes in catches, yards and touchdowns in each of his two seasons.
Smith has been better against better teams. In six career postseason games, all against top 10 opponents, he has 34 catches for 682 yards and six scores. “The better the opponent, the better he is. That’s the rarest thing a receiver can be,” McElroy said.
McElroy also leaned on the coordinator change. Head coach Ryan Day replaced Brian Hartline with Arthur Smith, who spent 17 years in the NFL and called plays for the Titans and Steelers. “He hired the guy whose identity is running the football and hitting you on play action off of it,” McElroy said.
The Coaches Poll agrees with the top spot. Ohio State took 38 of 72 first-place votes, its first preseason No. 1 in that poll since 2015.
Why Ohio State’s defense and Texas game could derail season early
Ohio State has to replace eight defensive starters. Three of them went in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, including safety Caleb Downs and linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles. Only three defenders who started every game are back. So fall camp has turned into an audition.
“It is a competition. We want guys to compete, and a lot of guys have earned the right to do that,” Day said.
The other worry showed up in December. Ohio State allowed just six sacks in the regular season. Then Indiana and Miami combined for 10 sacks and 16 tackles for loss in the final two games. “They didn’t necessarily get out schemed. They just got beaten at the line of scrimmage twice in a row with the season on the line,” McElroy said.
Four of five starters return up front, and the players say the tone has changed under the new coordinator. Center Carson Hinzman described the message this way after camp practice No. 6.
“It’s like, ‘Man, it doesn’t matter what’s going to happen, we’re going to go and rock these dudes off the ball,'” Hinzman said.
The test of whether the Buckeyes can live up to another season’s high standard comes early. After Ball State on Sept. 5, Ohio State goes to Texas on Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. That is a rematch of last year’s 14-7 Buckeyes win in Columbus. Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons and that Longhorns front will tell everyone whether the Buckeyes’ rebuilt pieces hold up in Week 2.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
