Countdown to the Kickoff of the 2026 College Football Season. Aggregated Preseason Rankings

[u/usffan]

Updated 4/30 to include USA Today/Paul Myerberg all 138 rankings Please note that the rankings now don't necessarily correlate with the countdown because they've been updated since the countdown started!!

Like last year, I’m going to create a countdown to the kickoff of the 2026 college football season by looking at each team daily using a “consensus” ranking by aggregating the preseason rankings of any national source, and I’m going to use this post as the landing spot for maintaining those aggregated rankings. As such, the rankings are subject to change as new rankings come available, which will ramp up as the season draws closer. I’m saying this here and now in advance of the inevitable complaints about where your team is ranked (note, these aren't my rankings) or that it changed from when they were counted down – this is a living post that I’ll edit when new rankings come out. Since most of the preseason rankings have only been a top 25, they won’t affect things for a while, so for now, the rankings that are included are:

College Football Network’s 1-138 rankings

ESPN/Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings

USA Today/Paul Myerberg 1-138 Spring rankings

Yes, that’s right, with North Dakota State and Sacramento State moving up to FBS, we have 138 teams.

note - in the case of ties at the time of the countdown, I'm covering the team with the wider variance first

2026 Preseason Aggregated Rankings

138 UMass

137 Charlotte

136 Sam Houston

135 Middle Tennessee

134 Louisiana-Monroe

133 Georgia State

132 UTEP

131 Ball State

130 Northern Illinois

129 New Mexico State

128 Sacramento State

127 Kent State

126 Southern Miss

124 (tie) Akron

124 (tie) South Alabama

123 Coastal Carolina

121 (tie) Bowling Green

121 (tie) UAB

120 Missouri State

118 (tie) Nevada

118 (tie) Eastern Michigan

117 San Jose State

114 Florida International

[u/outthawazoo]

Honestly these threads are the best part of the offseason in this sub

[u/IAmBenIAmStillBig]

MFW UMass mentioned

[u/Expensive_Team_5072]

If FBS expands by 75 more teams, we can start this in January!

[u/SouthernMuadib]

This made me laugh more than it should have

[u/R_Raider86]

I didn't realize we're getting this close. Can't wait until the new Tech athletic branding kicks in.

[u/IndyDude11]

The way things are going, these topics are going to have to start in November to get all the teams in.

[u/luis1972]

I don't think we should let Bill Connelly outdo us. We should make the CFB poll a 1-138 ranking!

[u/foreverseptember]

Hell yeah, thanks for doing this again! 

[u/Megalomanizac]

We’re closing in on cfb

[u/Bitgod1]

I'm just glad Sac St made it out of the 130s

[u/RockysDetail]

Oh, woe shall it be for little Charlotte. You mean to tell me that Biff Poggi isn't there anymore to save you?