Ohio State Ranked No. 1 in USA Today Preseason Program Rankings for 2026 College Football Season
Ohio State is starting the year exactly where its fans expect it to.
USA Today placed the Buckeyes atop its preseason program rankings for 2026, edging out Alabama and putting the rest of the country on notice that Ohio State is not going anywhere. The list weighs sustained success, tradition, current standing in the sport, and other factors that add up to a general “who is the biggest brand in college football right now” question. The answer, in this poll, is Ohio State.
The Buckeyes are also the overwhelming favorite to win the Big Ten in a poll of USA Today Network writers. That vote is a nod not just to the roster but to what Ryan Day and his staff have built.
Two names carry a lot of the buzz. Quarterback Julian Sayin is entering a season with real expectations after showing enough to convince the entire building he is ready to be the guy. Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith might be the best player at his position in college football and one of the top three or four players in the entire sport regardless of position.
Add in an experienced offensive line, a physical running game, and one of the deeper defensive rosters in the country, and Ohio State starts the season in the top tier of College Football Playoff contenders.
The question every Buckeye fan will ignore until October is whether this team can win games it is supposed to win. Ohio State has been a preseason top-five program for what feels like a decade. Championships have not always followed. Michigan has beaten them in enough recent matchups to make every August ranking feel a little emptier until the calendar hits November.
Day’s job is not just to be highly ranked in July. It is to still be highly ranked in December.
Alabama sitting at No. 2 in the same poll is also important context. The post-Nick Saban era in Tuscaloosa has been about proving that the standard can survive without the man who set it. So far it has, mostly, and the Crimson Tide are going to be right there in the SEC race and in the national playoff conversation once again.
The Big Ten is loaded again. Oregon is expected to be a force. Penn State always feels like it is one game away from putting it all together. Michigan is going to have opinions about being ranked behind Ohio State.
The College Football Playoff format also raises the stakes on being No. 1 early. Preseason rankings do not decide anything, but they do set the storylines that the entire season builds off of. Ohio State being ranked first means every road game they play becomes appointment television. Every close finish becomes national news. Every loss, if it comes, becomes a referendum on the entire program.
Ohio State will not run from any of that. They are the No. 1 program in USA Today’s poll for a reason. Now they have to prove it.
Kickoff cannot get here fast enough.
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.
