Pete Thamel called it as soon as the ballots were counted: Ohio State and Oregon are your 1-2 to open the 2026 season. That part isn't shocking. The Buckeyes are the defending machine with Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith headlining a Heisman-caliber offense, and it's reportedly the first time Ohio State has opened a season at No. 1 in the coaches poll since 2015. Oregon, fresh off a Peach Bowl loss to Indiana, still landed at No. 2 behind a haul of first-place votes. But the gap between them and everyone else is what actually makes this poll interesting.
We have a poll. Getting closer: Ohio State, Oregon atop college football preseason coaches poll. https://t.co/4jCSvkrP9s
Ohio State reportedly grabbed 38 of 72 first-place votes to Oregon's 6, with Georgia close behind in the points race. That still leaves room for chaos: six different programs pulled in at least one first-place vote, which by most accounts is the widest spread since 2008. Translation — nobody in the voting body is fully sold on a runaway favorite, and that's before a single snap of the season has been played.
Brett McMurphy broke down where all that depth is actually coming from, and the SEC still owns the room even without a team at the very top.
Coaches poll by conference: SEC (9), Big Ten (8), Big 12 (4), ACC (3) & Notre Dame
9 SEC teams in the room, 8 from the Big Ten, 4 from the Big 12, 3 from the ACC and Notre Dame doing its usual independent thing. That's the same power structure college football has been running on for the last few realignment cycles — SEC volume, Big Ten top-end, everybody else fighting for scraps. Reportedly Alabama, LSU, Tennessee and Missouri are among the SEC's ranked group, while Miami is said to be the ACC's top dog at No. 7.
Then there's the group that didn't quite make the cut but got real support. Pete Nakos posted the receiving-votes list, and it's a who's-who of programs one good August away from cracking the actual poll.
Other receiving votes: Louisville 153; Florida 147; TCU 63; Illinois 62; South Carolina 50; Arizona 50; Virginia 40; Vanderbilt 37; Auburn 29; Georgia Tech 26; Boise State 24; Oklahoma State 22; UNLV 17; North Carolina State 13; Florida State 13; Virginia Tech 12; Nebraska 12; Memphis 9; Arizona State 8; James Madison 6; Duke 6; Pittsburgh 4; New Mexico 4; Western Michigan 3; Navy 3; San Diego State 2; Kansas State 1; Jacksonville State 1; Hawaii 1; California 1;
Louisville (153 votes) and Florida (147) are clearly the next teams up, well clear of TCU, Illinois and the rest of the pack chasing votes. Both programs have been trending — Louisville's been quietly building under Jeff Brohm, and Florida's got enough talent to be one hot start away from forcing its way into the top 25 by October. None of this locks anything in, though. Preseason polls are notoriously bad predictors of who's actually playing in January — only one preseason No. 1 has gone on to win it all in the last decade — but they do set the market. Win totals, playoff odds, coach seat temperatures, all of it gets calibrated off this list starting today.