The College Football world knows there's a new guard, with teams like the Alabama Crimson Tide and Michigan Wolverines hitting hard times in recent years. There appears to be a consensus on who the new guard actually is as the 2025/2026 season comes to a close.
USA Today's Erick Smith and Paul Myerberg, and On3's Brett McMurphy, both released their Top 25 for the 2026/2027 season, and the consensus is that the Texas Longhorns, Ohio State Buckeyes, Georgia Bulldogs, Indiana Hoosiers, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the sport's top five. Of note, four of those teams boast a top-10 2026 transfer portal class.
USA Today had Texas as the No. 1 team, while On3 had Ohio State. Georgia was No. 2 on both lists. The biggest difference was Alabama at No. 11 on USA Today's list and No. 17 on On3's. Towards the bottom of their list, both had surprise entries like the Florida State Seminoles (USA Today's No. 22 team) and the Arizona Wildcats (On3's No. 25 team).
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College Football preseason rankings mean nothing
Let's not forget that the Longhorns, Penn State Nittany Lions, and Clemson Tigers were the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 teams in the country heading into the 2025 season. Then, Texas lost twice in the first five weeks, Penn State went 6-6 and fired James Franklin mid-way through October, and Clemson finished 7-6, with questions about Dabo Swinney's ability to adapt to the rev-share/NIL era flaring up from every corner of Upstate South Carolina and elsewhere.
These rankings mean nothing. In a 12-team CFP format, which is what's expected to remain since the SEC doesn't want to expand the playoff, there will be upsets of the top seeds after extra rest, an emerging formerly middle-of-the-pack team from the SEC, Big Ten, or, apparently, the ACC, and chaos that wasn't predicted months in advance.
It's fun to set up the disappointment narratives, particularly from the comfort of schools not expected to do much, but other than that, there's not much value to these preseason rankings. Especially as the dust is settling on the previous season.