Ohio State Is No. 1 in the 2026 AP Preseason Poll, But Oregon Is the Better Team
Ohio State opened the 2026 college football season at No. 1 in the AP preseason poll, and the Buckeyes deserve it. Forty first-place votes, a returning national title pedigree from two years back, and the best receiver in the country on the roster. That is a resume nobody else can match on paper.
Oregon landed at No. 2 with 14 first-place votes, Georgia at No. 3, Notre Dame at No. 4 with 6 first-place votes of its own, and Texas at No. 5. Defending national champion Indiana slid in at No. 6, which feels low until you remember the whole country still does not believe in the Hoosiers. That is a different argument for a different day.
Here is the real conversation. Ohio State has the highest ceiling in the country. Julian Sayin is the anointed guy at quarterback and Jeremiah Smith is a unanimous preseason All-American who might be the best player in college football before Halloween. Ryan Day always recruits at a top-three level. The pieces are absurd.
The problem is the pieces have to fit together, and Ohio State is replacing production at running back, along the offensive line, and across the back seven of the defense. Sayin has thrown a handful of college snaps. Smith cannot catch every ball. The Buckeyes are the most talented team in the country, but not the most complete one.
That title belongs to Oregon. Dan Lanning has now built the deepest roster in the sport, and the Ducks return more meaningful pieces than any team ahead of them. The offensive line is the best in the Big Ten. The secondary is loaded. The transfer portal work over the last two cycles has been surgical.
Oregon also has the schedule to prove it. A road trip to Penn State, a home date with Ohio State on Oct. 11, and a rematch with Michigan late. If the Ducks want the top spot, they will earn every inch of it. Nobody is stealing anything in that conference.
The Big Ten holding the top two spots in the preseason poll for the first time in 65 years tells you where the power in the sport lives right now. The SEC has Georgia and Texas and a bunch of ranked teams below them, but the two most complete rosters in the country play in the same league. That is a shift, and it is not reversing anytime soon.
Notre Dame at No. 4 is a fair spot for a program that keeps knocking on the door without quite kicking it in. Six first-place votes is a lot of respect for a team that has not won it all in the modern era. Marcus Freeman has earned that respect. Now he has to convert it.
The season kicks off Aug. 29 with North Carolina taking on TCU in Dublin, Ireland. That game does not touch the top of the rankings, but it is the first data point of the year, and everybody is starving for real football.
Bet on Ohio State to spend most of the year at No. 1. Bet on Oregon to be the team holding the trophy in January. The AP got the ranking right for August. December is going to look different.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
