The preseason Coaches Poll landed Tuesday at noon ET, and the top line was easy enough to swallow. Ohio State at No. 1 makes sense.
The Buckeyes bring back Julian Sayin, and the roster case is strong. Jeremiah Smith is still there too, and plenty of people will tell you he’s the best player in the country.
After that, the list gets a lot harder to defend.
The biggest miss is Indiana sitting all the way down at No. 6.
Curt Cignetti’s team just went 16-0, the first perfect 16-0 season in major college football history, and finished it by beating Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten championship game, Oregon 56-22 in the Peach Bowl and Miami 27-21 for the national title. Yet the coaches placed the champs behind both Big Ten teams they beat by a combined score of 69-32.
Fernando Mendoza, last year’s Heisman winner, is gone, but Indiana didn’t exactly stand still. Cignetti added TCU transfer Josh Hoover at quarterback and signed the No. 1 transfer class in the country.
At Big Ten media days, Cignetti said, "I'm a firm believer in our blueprint," Cignetti said at Big Ten media days. "We have a way of doing things … and all we do is win."
The outside polling world is not buying the low ranking, either. The Athletic and The Sporting News both have Indiana No.
- Athlon Sports, Phil Steele and Lindy's all slot the Hoosiers fifth.
Nobody else is treating Bloomington like the sixth-best program in America.
Oregon checks in at No. 2, and there’s a real case for the Ducks to live near the top. Dante Moore is back, and Dan Lanning continues to recruit at a high level.
But Oregon also absorbed that 56-22 loss to Indiana in a playoff semifinal seven months ago. Putting the Ducks four spots ahead of the team that did that to them feels like a very short memory.
Texas and Notre Dame are the other head-scratchers directly in front of Indiana. Texas went 10-3 with losses at Ohio State, at Florida and at Georgia.
Notre Dame went 10-2, opened with defeats against Miami and Texas A&M, then rattled off 10 straight and still missed the field. Neither team played a playoff snap in January, but both were ranked ahead of the reigning champion and the runner-up.
The roster talent is obvious, which is why both teams remain in the top 10 conversation. Arch Manning threw 26 touchdown passes while playing on an injured foot.
CJ Carr, in South Bend, passed for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns as a freshman. Still, Notre Dame lost to Miami 27-24 head-to-head and is listed two spots above the Hurricanes, while neither school matched what Indiana accomplished last season.
Miami’s placement is another one that jumps off the page. The Hurricanes played for the national title and beat Ohio State 24-14 in the quarterfinals to get there, but the coaches dropped them to No. 7, six spots behind the Buckeyes.
Mario Cristobal also added Darian Mensah, the best quarterback in the transfer portal. Mensah led the ACC with 3,973 passing yards and 34 touchdowns at Duke and was voted preseason ACC Player of the Year. Seventh feels light for the runner-up.
Then there’s Clemson, which was ranked sixth in last year’s preseason poll before stumbling to a 7-6 finish and ending the season unranked. The Tigers are back in the Top 25 again with first-year starter Christopher Vizzina set at quarterback, which makes this look like a vote for the brand more than the roster.
The full top 25 also includes Georgia at No. 3, Texas A&M at No.
8, Oklahoma at No. 9, Ole Miss at No.
10, Alabama at No. 11, Texas Tech at No.
12, LSU at No. 13, USC at No.
14, BYU at No. 15, Michigan at No.
16, Penn State at No. 17, Tennessee at No.
18, Washington at No. 19, SMU at No.
20, Utah at No. 21, Iowa at No.
22, Clemson at No. 23, Houston at No. 24 and Missouri at No.
The argument won’t last long. Week 0 kicks off the 2026 college football season on Aug. 29, and the first regular-season Coaches Poll comes out Sept. 8.
In Other News...
Bijan Robinson Just Gave Texas A Massive Recruiting Win
Bijan Robinsons rise in Atlanta has become the kind of exclamation point Texas can point to on the recruiting trail. The former Longhorns star just signed a three-year extension with the Falcons that can reach $75 million, with a reported $51 million guaranteed, a deal that underscores how quickly he has gone from college centerpiece to one of the NFLs highest-paid backs. Add in the fact that he led the league in scrimmage yards in 2025 and earned his first All-Pro nod, and its easy to see why his pro path carries so much weight back in Austin.
For Texas, the appeal is bigger than one contract or one standout season. Robinsons success reinforces a broader message about what the program can produce, and it comes at a time when Atlanta has committed major resources to him and other skill players as part of its offensive future. Recruits notice that kind of investment, especially when its attached to a player who already entered league conversations as a position-setter, and Texas can sell that track record without needing to say much at all. [Read more 🡒]
Bijan Robinson Just Gave Texas Fans Another Reason To Brag
Bijan Robinson keeps stacking reasons for Texas fans to feel like they watched something special before the rest of the football world fully caught up. The former Longhorn and current Atlanta Falcons star has signed a three-year contract extension reportedly worth up to $75 million, a deal that makes him the highest-paid running back in NFL history and comes with $51 million guaranteed. It is the latest marker of how far his game has traveled since his college days, when his blend of balance, burst and open-field control already looked different from everyone elses.
Robinsons rise has now been validated in more than one lane, too, with Madden NFL 27 giving him a 95 overall rating and putting him among the leagues premier offensive players. For Texas, it is another neat line in a growing professional rsum that keeps reflecting back on the programs recruiting pitch and developmental reputation. The interesting part now is less about whether Robinson belongs in that elite company and more about how long he can keep pushing the standard for what a running back is worth. [Read more 🡒]
Arch Manning Just Added More Weight To Texas Expectations
Texas entered the summer with lofty expectations, and Arch Mannings name landing on the Maxwell Award preseason watchlist only adds to the noise around him. The Texas quarterback is one of 81 players included on the list for the award given annually to the best all-around college football player, a spotlight that also puts him in the company of another Longhorns standout, wide receiver Cam Coleman.
For Manning, the watchlist nod brings a little extra weight because of the family history attached to the trophy. If he were to win it, he would join a lineage that already includes Maxwell Award winners, while Texas would have another high-profile marker tied to a season built around big ambitions. The awards defending winner is Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, but for Texas the more immediate question is how much more pressure comes with every honor Manning adds before the games even begin. [Read more 🡒]