The initial AP top 25 has been release ahead of the 2026 season. There’s a lot to dive into, especially with SEC teams, so let’s get right to it. Here are the biggest takeaways from Monday’s rankings.
The Rankings
1. Ohio State
2. Oregon
3. Georgia
4. Notre Dame
5. Texas
6. Indiana
7. Miami
8. Texas A&M
9. Ole Miss
10. Oklahoma
11. LSU
12. Texas Tech
13. Alabama
14. BYU
15. USC
16. Michigan
17. Washington
18. Penn State
19. SMU
20. Tennessee
21. Utah
22. Iowa
23. Houston
24. Louisville
25. Missouri
There is SEC bias, but not where you’d expect
The SEC and Big Ten are both well represented in the initial poll. Similar to the Coaches Poll Top 25 that was released in early August, there are nine SEC teams and eight Big Ten teams. That doesn’t exude a ton of “bias” for the SEC and shows once again how much more even both conferences are now since expansion, NIL and the transfer portal.
If there is one thing that seems to have become a running joke turned reality it’s Missouri being forced into the top 25 in the back end. Missouri has been a really good program over the past several years, and Eli Drinkwitz has been great as the head coach, taking the Tigers to five straight bowl games. However, the Tigers’ record against ranked teams under Drinkwitz is just 7-19. Even worse, they’re just 17-24 under him against teams with winning records. This year’s team has a good amount of talent, but it loses 43 percent of their production for sacks, pressures and TFLs. They also will be without a fully healthy Ahmad Hardy at running back to start the year. Having them ranked at all knowing all of that is pretty puzzling.
New low for Alabama
Staying in the SEC, Alabama found itself reversed from their coaches poll ranking with LSU. In the coaches poll, the Tide were No. 11 and LSU was No. 13. The AP poll was the exact opposite. Alabama is a really young team, and it seems like predicting where they’ll end up has been all over the place. Phil Steele has them as the No. 1 surprise team in the country with a chance at winning the national title in his preview magazine. Others think they’ll miss the playoff entirely.
Which one of those predictions comes to fruition is out for debate, but one thing that is for certain is that a No. 13 ranking is the lowest Alabama has been ranked in a preseason poll since 2008 when they started the year at No. 24. Granted, that year’s team went 12-2 and was ranked No. 1 in the country for a time, but it’s still pretty foreign territory for the Tide at this point of the year.
Beware of the top 10
There’s always one. It happens every year. Or, almost every year. In 22 of the previous 23 polls at least one team that was ranked in the preseason top 10 finished the year unranked. Just based on numbers, don’t be surprised if that team comes from the SEC. The SEC led the way with five teams ranked in the top 10. That includes Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma that make up 8-10 in the poll.
There are 17 games between the current top 10 teams this year. It would be nearly impossible to end up with all ten teams still ranked here by the end of the season let alone ranked at all.
