Ohio State is No. 1 in the preseason program rankings, and honestly, it is hard to argue.
USA Today placed the Buckeyes atop its Top 25 college football program rankings entering the 2026 season. The list evaluates programs based on recent success, roster strength, coaching stability and long-term outlook. Ohio State checks every box.
Ryan Day and the Buckeyes have quietly reset themselves after some rough postseasons earlier in the decade. The 2024 team won a national title with Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator. Even without Kelly, who has moved on to Northwestern, the Buckeyes’ offensive engine is still humming.
Recruiting is the main reason Ohio State always sits at the top of these lists. The Buckeyes recruit like an SEC program while playing in the Big Ten. The 2026 signing class was another top-five haul nationally. Add in high-end transfer portal additions and the roster is loaded again.
Texas rounds out the top five on the list. Steve Sarkisian has done exactly what he was hired to do in Austin. The Longhorns are a national contender again, they are recruiting at an elite level, and they play in the toughest conference in the country now that they are in the SEC.
Georgia is still Georgia. Kirby Smart’s program has been at the top of the sport for the better part of a decade. Three SEC titles in four years is a serious run, and nobody in Athens is planning to slow down any time soon.
The Big Ten dominates the top of the list. Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon and Penn State are all inside the top 10. Add Indiana, the defending national champion, and the Big Ten has more real title contenders than any other conference in the country.
That has been the trend for the past two years. The SEC used to be the automatic top conference. The Big Ten’s addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington changed the balance of power overnight. Indiana winning the title last year hammered the point home.
Ohio State’s path to another national title is not simple. The Buckeyes play a brutal Big Ten schedule that includes trips to some of the best teams in the country. The College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams, so there is more margin for error. But the top of the sport is deeper than ever, and one loss can still knock you out of the No. 1 seed.
What Ohio State has that most other programs do not is a proven offensive plan. Day is going to get the quarterback right. The receivers are going to be elite. The running back rotation is loaded. The defense might be the best in the country, especially in the front seven.
New coaches Alex Golesh and Jon Sumrall are going to try to bring the SEC back to the top. Even with them, the argument for the Big Ten as the best conference is only going to grow.
Ohio State’s preseason No. 1 ranking is not a surprise. Neither is the fact that the Buckeyes are again the team to beat. The season is going to be a war, and the road to the national title is going to run through Columbus.
Business as usual for Ryan Day’s program.
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.
