College football seems to sit squarely at the intersection of progress and tradition, which may be why it’s arguably more popular now than ever before. No better evidence of that is in the hubbub that accompanied yesterday’s announcement which among others BLEACHER REPORT’s Joseph Zucker reported on:
Ohio State paced the field in the first Coaches Poll ahead of the 2026 college football season.
The Buckeyes received 38 first-place votes, 32 ahead of Oregon in second place. Reigning national champion Indiana cracked the ranking at No. 6.
Preseason Coaches Poll
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Texas
- Notre Dame
- Indiana
- Miami
- Texas A&M
- Oklahoma
- Ole Miss
- Alabama
- Texas Tech
- LSU
- USC
- BYU
- Michigan
- Penn State
- Tennessee
- Washington
- SMU
- Utah
- Iowa
- Clemson
- Houston
- Missouri
Mind you, most of these schools have barely begun practicing, let alone played a single down. But these almighty coaches, based on their collective competitive knowledge and no doubt a whole summer of analyzing spring game footage, somehow were able to pre-ordain the fates of 2026 squads and make a big deal out of it.
In an era where polls were the sole determinant of who actually won an NCAA championship it was defensible that there has to be a starting point. One could even argue that then the playoff system was limited to a de facto Final Four that some sort of guidepost was needed to at least create a framework for eventually determining who got to compete. But with an expanded College Football Playoff currently at 12 teams and a Power Four base hell-bent on growing it to 16 or even 24 as soon as the level of appetite among broadcasters is capable of being fully assessed, more than ever champions are being determined the same way they are in pro sports–on the field. Where no pre-season poll of consequence is given more than a passing thought.
Zucker certainly knows this given the caveat that immediately followed his list:
Preseason polls have long been an unreliable indicator for who will actually come out on top in the end, and forecasting a champion is even more difficult in an era of the transfer portal. Last year’s preseason Coaches Poll had Texas on top and followed by Penn State. Both schools missed the College Football Playoff, and the Nittany Lions fired coach James Franklin after a 3-3 start. Indiana, meanwhile, was down in 19th. Even the staunchest Hoosiers supporters couldn’t have imagined the team would go 16-0 and have the Heisman Trophy winner under center.
But what they do do is create debate and fuel a firehose of half-baked takes and “analyses” like the ones that were in rotation with Zucker’s piece yesterday that dominated my social media feeds. Like this one from James Parks of CFB-HQ on SI that immediately calls into question the coaches’ preferred top dog:
Make no mistake: the Buckeyes will be one of college football’s very best teams. Any team with Julian Sayin throwing the ball to Jeremiah Smith would be. But the best? Sure, they’re a national title contender right now, but when looking at the rate and quality of turnover on defense, calling them the best team might be an overstep.
A lot of invaluable tacklers are suddenly out of the picture, and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia has an uphill climb ensuring that their replacements are of the right caliber to keep Ohio State in the mix against what will be a much more difficult schedule this season.
Or this one from USA TODAY NETWORK’s admittedly biased Indiana reporter John Leuzzi:
Curt Cignetti’s squad came in at No. 6 in Aug. 4’s preseason top 25 reveal, making the Hoosiers the third-highest-ranked Big Ten team in the poll and the second defending national champion in the past 15 years to start the next season outside the top 5 in the Coaches Poll.
The Hoosiers’ placement at No. 6 in the poll has caused a bit of a reaction around the college football world, from social media to discussion boards and everything in between, on how the Hoosiers may look this season and how the defending national champion ranks outside the top 5. Though Indiana received 14 first-place votes, the Hoosiers received a combined 30 votes for Nos. 5 and 6 in the poll. There was one particularly surprising outlier among the voters, with one ballot ranking Indiana at No. 14.
And if you’re a true fan of doomscrolling, feel free to peruse the full gamut of Leuzzi’s teammate Paul Myerberg, who proceeded to rattle off one lingering question for every one the teams that were given a seeding for a tournament that will ultimately be decided by way different peeps and factors than an arbitrary August vote.
The college game does not have the benefit of exhibitions or even controlled scrimmages to at least whet appetites the way the NFL teams do. With the spring games at schools becoming increasingly irrelevant due to the explosion of changes in the portal, I’d argue that even moving those to this time of year that would showcase players jockeying for playing time would provide at least a little actual context for polls like this to have any teeth beyond merely allowing the rightsholders–even the smaller conference-centric networks that often wind up with one of these top tier teams by sheer default–something to promote incessantly as the countdown to actual games drumrolls on.
But instead we get manufactured discourse and overly emotional takes that I’d question are even needed in the first place. If you’re a true college football fan, you’ve been chomping at the bit since mid-January for action. You undoubtedly know your favorite team(‘)s(‘?) schedule(s). You might have already laid a few bucks on a pointspread that has been up on some sites since the 4th of July. If you are so inclined, did you really need a ranking to influence your verdict?
There will be an AP poll from writers released in the next few days. Just about every media outlet and every human writer that still works will have their own take before the first actual action occurs at month’s end. There will likely be a renewed amount of consternation and bragging in their aftermaths.
Maybe you’ll need to care about it. I, for one, won’t. And no, I won’t offer you my own list–even though it’d be just as grounded in reality as anything we read yesterday. I’ll wait for the games to begin to offer a take. The sooner the better.
Courage…