Ohio State is No. 1. Oregon is No. 2. Georgia, which hasn’t won a national championship since the 2022 season, is No. 3.
That’s at least what the coaches think.
Texas (No. 4) and Notre Dame (No. 5), the two teams college football podcaster/commentator Josh Pate1 chose for his preseason CFP national championship game (Version 1.0) prediction2, have not won a national championship since 2005 and 1988, respectively.
Here are the two things that stick out to me from this coaches poll:
1.) The coaches put Texas and Notre Dame, who have, I guess we can now say, traditionally struggled in the playoff, in the Top 5.
2.) Which coaches thought it would be a good idea to put coach Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers, the defending national champions, all the way back at No. 6?!
Have any of them Googled the damn guy?
Why would you want to give Cignetti and his crew any bulletin board material? And that’s exactly what the coaches did here.
I maintain college football is about coaches and quarterbacks, and yes, while Indiana will be tasked with trying to replace Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza3 this season, it’s a hard pill for me to swallow that Dan Lanning (Oregon), Steve Sarkisian (Texas) or Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman are ahead of Cignetti, who did the near-impossible in bringing a football championship to Bloomington, on any coaching list.
I understand each of the Top 5 teams will have its starting quarterback returning, which will only put mounting pressure on each of their respective shoulders.
Each of those Top 5 teams have now become the hunted. Meanwhile, Cignetti and Indiana have been dealt the Disrespect Card.
Cignetti doubles-down on those, and you can bet Cig will be showing that hand on Oct. 17, when they host Ohio State in the biggest football game EVER! on the campus of Indiana.
SEC:
Not surprisingly, nine of the top 25 teams come from the Southeastern Confederacyrence.
I’m not sure if that will be enough to appease Gen. Greg Sankey and the rest of his southern troops to vote from seceding from the NCAA and the rest of college football, but it means for at least one more season, we can be sure to hear about just how great different SEC football is, and how the fact 12 of the conference’s teams will not qualify for the 12 CFP spots is an unbelievable and atrocious injustice to not only the country, but all of humanity, and there’s no way the SEC would even consider a proposal to allow 24 teams into a college football playoff, as there are only 16 SEC members, and so why would we ever even need or consider a seventeenth team!4
B1G:
In addition to the top two teams and Indiana, the coaches like USC (No. 14), which if I’m being honest, still don’t feel like a Big Ten team, yet. That might change, especially this season, if they can come into Happy Valley and Bloomington and score victories, and upset Ohio State at home toward the end of the season.
Michigan, which from the outside, feels like a total Dumpster fire, is getting respect, with a No. 16 ranking. I guess that’s why Kyle Wittingham was hired.
No. 17 Penn State5, last season’s preseason No. 3, and new head coach Matt Campbell, will try to improve on last season’s 8-4 Iowa State record, and put the carcass of fired head coach James Franklin in its rear view for good.
Meanwhile, our very own favorite over-under squad, the Iowa Hawkeyes, come in at No. 22, which means they’re probably a total of 6 points away from being No. 3 in the country or out of the polls6.
Big XII:
The Big 12 gets a little more respect than the ACC from the coaches — four teams to the ACC’s three — but the highest-ranked, Texas Tech, comes in at No. 12. That makes them a possible “last-team-in” for the CFP.
The Red Raiders will have to battle No. 15 BYU, No. 21 Utah, and No. 24 Houston for conference supremacy, but only face Houston this season, in a Sept. 18 prime time showdown.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if neither of these teams are ranked come November and we’re talking about how a 1-loss West Virginia deserves a spot in the CFP.
This conference changes on a year-to-year basis it seems.
Listen to the Tailgators Setup Podcast’s 2026 preview of the ACC:
2026 Conference Preview: Atlantic Coast Conference
In this episode, the Tailgators crew previews the Atlantic Coast Conference.
ACC:
Miami has never won an ACC championship. Full stop.
They are, however, last season’s national championship game losers. That’s gotta count for something, right?
For the coaches, that makes them No. 7, right behind national championship game winner, Indiana.
Is this the year the Hurricanes finally put together a conference season folks in South Florida can be proud of?
Meanwhile, SMU (No. 20) and Clemson (No. 23) are the conference’s other representatives.
Notre Dame:
America’s Favorite Team To Hate, the Fighting Irish are No. 5, and get their own section.
Notre Dame, I’m sure, will be good this season. They might even be great. But the only thing they’ve proven, over, and over, and over again, is that they don’t have what it takes to win it all.
Everyone likes to poop on the schedule, which while not exactly a non-conference schedule, does involve the ACC.
The Irish have three preseason-ranked teams (BYU, Miami and SMU) on its schedule, so there’s that. What will those teams be ranked when they play Notre Dame — Miami and SMU are not until November — is the real question?
What Does It Mean?
Preseason college football rankings may be the most useless ranking, especially in this day and age, with player free-agency and schools routinely reworking rosters each season.
It’s likely one (or more) of the coaches from these 25 teams isn’t working come Turkey Day. Maybe not the Purge like we had in 2025, but still, the odds are not in their favor. Looking at you Dabo.
It’s more than likely a team we’re not even thinking of, will be a serious contender for one of the Top 12 spots come Selection Sunday.
And it can be guaranteed that if some things had gone a different way for Virginia Tech and head coach James Franklin, they would “obviously” be fighting for a playoff spot.
But remember, preseason rankings and Franklin recruiting classes are all the same, worthless.
If you’re not familiar with Pate, you probably will be before the season is over, as I get the sense he’s going to be all over ESPN this college football season.
He picked Notre Dame.
TCU transfer Josh Hoover is the next man up for Cignetti’s Hoosiers.
The Big Ten has won the last three national championships, although I’m pretty sure Michigan cheated.
Grossly over-ranked in my humble opinion.
I’ll be honest, I forgot No. 19 Washington, is also in the Big Ten.