Ohio State and Oregon will begin the 2026 college football season at the top of the Associated Press Top 25, giving the Big Ten its first preseason No. 1-2 finish in 65 years. The Buckeyes received 40 first-place votes from the 69 media members who participated in the AP preseason poll, while Oregon collected 14.
Notre Dame received six first-place votes, defending national champion Indiana received eight and Miami received one. Ohio State enters the season ranked No. 1 for the ninth time in program history and the first time since 2015.
The Buckeyes are now tied with Alabama for the second-most preseason No. 1 selections, trailing only Oklahoma, which has opened at No. 1 10 times. Oregon’s No. 2 ranking is the highest preseason position in program history. The Ducks had previously opened at No. 3 four times.
The Big Ten’s 1-2 finish is only the second time in AP preseason poll history that the conference has occupied the top two spots. The previous occurrence came in 1961, when Iowa and Ohio State opened No. 1 and No. 2.
The only other conference to accomplish the feat was the Big Eight in 1987, when Oklahoma and Nebraska held the top two positions.
The top five in the 2026 preseason poll are Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas. Indiana follows at No. 6, with Miami at No. 7, Texas A&M at No. 8, Ole Miss at No. 9 and Oklahoma at No. 10.
The Buckeyes will enter the season with significant expectations after the Big Ten captured three consecutive College Football Playoff national championships, with Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana winning the last three titles. The conference now will attempt to become the first to win four consecutive national championships.
The Big Ten has also placed two teams among the top three in the preseason poll for four consecutive years.
The SEC leads all conferences with nine teams in the preseason Top 25 for the third consecutive season. Five SEC teams appear in the top 10, the first time the conference has accomplished that since 2013.
Alabama, meanwhile, opens at No. 13, ending a 17-year streak of preseason top-10 appearances. That streak was the second-longest in AP poll history.
The Big 12 has four ranked teams, led by conference champion Texas Tech at No. 12. The ACC has three teams in the rankings: Miami at No. 7, SMU at No. 19 and Louisville at No. 24.
No Group of 6 team cracked the preseason Top 25. Boise State, which has moved from the Mountain West to the new Pac-12, received the most votes among teams outside the rankings. Nine other Group of 6 programs received at least one vote.
The debate over Big Ten and SEC supremacy will have an early opportunity to take center stage when the two conferences meet in several major matchups.
On Sept. 12, No. 10 Oklahoma visits No. 16 Michigan, while No. 1 Ohio State travels to No. 5 Texas in one of the season’s most anticipated early games.
Ohio State’s schedule provides little room for an extended adjustment period. The Buckeyes visit Texas in September and will face five teams ranked in the preseason Top 25 during their nine-game Big Ten schedule, including a road matchup with Indiana and a home game against Oregon.
With Ohio State and Oregon beginning the season at Nos. 1 and 2, the Big Ten enters 2026 with unprecedented preseason expectations. The season will determine whether the conference can turn its historic position in the AP poll into another championship run.
