2026 Preseason AP Top 25: Ohio State Opens at No. 1 for Ninth Time as Championship Odds Take Shape

Ohio State opened the 2026 season as the No. 1 team in the country, claiming the top spot in Monday’s preseason AP Top 25 poll for the ninth time in program history. The Buckeyes collected 40 of a possible 60 first-place votes and 1,672 total points, edging Oregon, which climbed to No. 2 with 14 first-place votes of its own — the first time in program history the Ducks have opened a season ranked that high.

Georgia checked in third, followed by Notre Dame, Texas and defending national champion Indiana to round out the top six. It marks the first time since 1987 that a single conference has held both of the top two spots in the preseason poll, with the Big Ten now riding a stretch of three straight national titles into the new campaign.

A Loaded Top 10 and a New-Look LSU

The SEC placed five teams in the top 10 — Georgia, Texas, Miami, Texas A&M and Ole Miss — while Oklahoma rounded out the group at No. 10. Lane Kiffin’s first season at LSU opened with the Tigers debuting at No. 11, a notable vote of confidence for a program that hired Kiffin away from Ole Miss over the offseason. Texas Tech, at No. 12, stands as the highest-ranked Big 12 team, ahead of Alabama at No. 13 and a BYU-USC tie at No. 14.

Ohio State’s run atop the poll continues a trend of dominance for the program, which now ties Alabama for the second-most preseason No. 1 rankings in AP poll history, trailing only Oklahoma’s ten. It’s the Buckeyes’ first time starting a season at No. 1 since 2015. History suggests the path from here won’t be easy — no team has started at No. 1 and finished as national champion since Alabama in 2017, and a preseason No. 1 hasn’t gone the distance in eight consecutive seasons.

Clemson’s Historic Fall From the Rankings

The poll’s most jarring result came at the bottom of the ballot sheet rather than the top. Clemson is unranked entering a season for the first time since 2011, snapping a run of 14 consecutive AP preseason polls in which the Tigers opened in the top 16. Dabo Swinney’s program still drew 112 votes for consideration — more than any other team left outside the rankings — but that wasn’t enough to overtake Missouri for the No. 25 spot.

The fall is a direct consequence of last year’s collapse. Clemson opened the 2025 season ranked No. 4, then stumbled to a 1-3 start, finished 7-6 and closed the year unranked after a bowl loss. It’s a steep enough drop that it raises real questions about where the program’s national championship value sits heading into 2026, and it will be watched closely as futures markets and season-win-total lines get set in the weeks ahead.

What the Poll Means for the Championship Betting Market

The preseason poll landed right as national championship futures boards were taking shape, and the numbers line up closely with where voters put teams. Ohio State enters as the favorite at odds in the +550 to +600 range depending on the book, an implied probability of roughly 15 percent — the shortest price on the board, but still far from a lock in a sport where the preseason No. 1 hasn’t won it all since 2017.

Notre Dame and Texas sit next in line at +650, with Oregon close behind at +800 alongside defending champion Indiana. Georgia rounds out the group of teams with realistic top-tier value near +900. Miami and LSU sit further down the board in the +1200 to +2000 range, with Kiffin’s LSU debut ranked at No. 11 giving that number a jolt of relevance most first-year coaching situations don’t get.

Clemson’s slide out of the rankings is the story most likely to move futures markets in the other direction. A team that opened 2025 as a top-four national title contender now enters 2026 without a spot in the poll at all, and that kind of swing typically shows up fast in both title odds and season win totals once sportsbooks finalize their preseason boards. With three consecutive Big Ten national champions and Ohio State and Oregon both drawing top-two votes for the first time in nearly four decades, the conference’s grip on the top of the market looks stronger than it has in years — leaving bettors a short window before Week 0 to decide whether the market has already caught up to the poll, or whether value remains buried further down the board.