The Oregon Ducks are entering the 2026 season with plenty of national respect, and SuperWest Sports’ preseason composite rankings make that clear. In a ranking built from 23 different media outlets, including USA TODAY, CBS Sports and ESPN, Oregon landed at No. 2 in the country.
That puts the Ducks just behind the top team in the composite and ahead of a crowded field of national contenders. ESPN’s FPI also has Oregon near the top, placing the Ducks at No. 4 with a 9.6% chance to win the national title.
FPI’s order has Ohio State at No. 1, followed by Texas at No. 2 and Notre Dame at No. 3.
The broader picture is that Oregon is still viewed as one of the sport’s elite programs, even if the biggest postseason breakthrough has not arrived yet. The Ducks have been excellent in the regular season, but they’ve fallen in the CFP Quarterfinal and CFP Semifinal in consecutive years.
From inside the program, though, the focus is on the path in front of them: handle the regular season, stay in position and set up a run at the title. That starts with a schedule that includes two major matchups against USC and Washington, games that could carry serious CFP weight.
Oregon is also the highest-ranked team in the west in the composite. USC checks in at No.
12, BYU at No. 13, Washington at No.
19, Utah at No. 20, Arizona at No. 24, and Boise State and Cal are tied at No.
If the Ducks can control that stretch, they’ll be right where they want to be when the season turns toward the playoff picture.
In Other News...
Oregon Great DeForest Buckner Just Entered A Concerning New Conversation
ESPNs latest league-wide positional rankings offered a familiar reminder of how much former Oregon Ducks talent still shapes the NFL, with Justin Herbert, Penei Sewell and Christian Gonzalez all landing on the list. For Ducks fans, DeForest Buckner has long been part of that same conversation as one of the programs most reliable pro success stories, a defensive tackle whose resume has usually kept him near the top of the leagues interior line discussion.
This time, though, Buckners name was missing from ESPNs top 10, a notable shift after he was still ranked eighth among defensive tackles in 2025. The omission points to how quickly the discussion can change for a veteran whose recent availability has been limited, and it leaves Oregon followers watching a situation that feels more about health and timing than any real doubt about what Buckner has meant when hes been on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Former Duck Terrance Green Is Suddenly Turning Heads In The SEC
Terrance Green never got much runway at Oregon, where he spent three seasons buried behind a deep line of defensive tackles and had to wait for snaps behind a group that included several NFL-caliber bodies. That kind of logjam can make it hard for any player to build a profile, but it also means Green arrives at Alabama with a different kind of rsum than most transfers: less production, more untapped potential, and a chance to show what he can do when the path is finally clearer.
Now the former Duck is drawing real attention in the SEC, and the early buzz around him has been strong enough to land him on The Athletics preseason second team. With two seasons of eligibility left, Green has a real opportunity to turn a modest Oregon resume into something much bigger in Tuscaloosa, and the next step is whether that promise translates once the games start and the Crimson Tide decide how quickly they want to lean on him. [Read more 🡒]
Oregons Loaded 2027 Class Already Has Early Impact Candidates
Oregons 2027 recruiting haul is already starting to look like more than a future depth chart exercise. The Ducks have 24 commits in the class, and the headliners include five-star wide receivers Dakota Guerrant and Xavier Sabb along with five-star quarterback Will Mencl, a group that gives the staff a rare blend of top-end talent and positional value before any of them have set foot in Eugene.
The intrigue now is how quickly that talent can translate once they arrive. Early projections point to Guerrant, Mencl and Sabb as the kinds of prospects who could force their way onto the field sooner than expected, with Mencls path at quarterback drawing especially close attention as Oregon looks ahead to the next wave of roster turnover. For a program that keeps stacking elite classes, the bigger question is no longer whether the Ducks can sign difference-makers, but how soon they can start using them. [Read more 🡒]