Preseason AP and Coaches polls put Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia at the top, but questions linger about the rest of the field

The 2026 college football preseason conversation began the way it often does in the sport’s long offseason, with polls that do not just predict outcomes but also report what the sport’s decision-makers believe matters. This year’s opening salvo came Monday when the Preseason AP Top 25 poll was released, coming about two weeks after the Preseason Coaches Poll was made public. In a rare alignment at the very top, the first three teams are the same in both: Ohio State at No. 1, Oregon at No. 2, and Georgia at No. 3.

That shared top trio is where the consensus ends, at least for fans and for the broader discourse that follows the rankings. A Yahoo Sports look at the preseason Top 10 framed the debate as disrespect, arguing that the teams entering the year with the most recent momentum are being treated like favorites while everyone else from the next tier down is pushed farther into the background. The implication is not that the top three are undeserving. It is that the gap between the favorites and the rest of the ranking may feel larger than some observers believe it should.

The reason the top alignment carries extra weight is structural. The AP poll is driven by a national panel of media members, while the Coaches Poll reflects the views of head coaches. When the same teams occupy the same top three spots in both, it suggests more than just a momentary overlap. It indicates a shared evaluation of the sport’s leading programs entering the new season, including how their recent performances translate into expectation for the year ahead.

At the same time, preseason polls are by nature blunt instruments. They reward programs that have already done enough to establish national belief, but they struggle to quantify the unpredictable variables that define any given college football year. Those variables can include the rate at which new starters learn a system, how quickly a defense or offense adjusts to returning personnel, and how effective a team is at managing the specific matchups it faces early in the schedule. That is why a team can rise into the top 10 and still feel like it is being treated as a step behind the consensus leaders.

Yahoo Sports’ framing of the “most disrespected” label is essentially a critique of that separation. After Ohio State, Oregon, and Georgia, the article describes a steep drop-off in perceived respect, calling the remainder “a bunch of disrespect.” It is not a claim that the rankings are wrong in a provable, factual way, but rather an invitation to examine the assumptions embedded in preseason placement.

The preseason Top 25 itself remains the baseline reference point for fans, analysts, and conference narratives. From there, early-season results and non-conference games often force a re-calibration, and that re-calibration can be rapid once teams begin playing meaningful games in September. For the programs outside the presumed top echelon, the preseason gap can create additional pressure, because each close result, each late-game execution issue, or each unexpected stumble can make it harder to close the “respect” distance before the sport’s national attention consolidates around a smaller group of contenders.

What to watch next is less about poll arguments and more about how the preseason storylines collide with reality. If the top three continue to validate the consensus, the debate may shift to whether the next tier is being underrated or whether it simply lacked the résumé to earn premium placement. If not, the preseason “disrespect” argument could gain momentum quickly, especially when voters revisit rankings later in the year. Either way, this early overlap at No. 1 through No. 3 has already set expectations high, and it has ensured that the teams ranked next will be judged not only on their wins, but on whether they can look like peers of Ohio State, Oregon, and Georgia by the time the postseason picture begins to form.