Oklahoma will open the 2026 college football season ranked No. 10 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll, which was released on Monday.
The fact that the Sooners are ranked among the top 25 teams in both major human polls (AP and the Coaches Poll) is not a huge surprise. This marks the 27th consecutive season Oklahoma has been ranked in the AP Top 25 to begin the season.
What is most telling about this year's AP preseason ranking is that it represents the first time since 2022 (Brent Venables' first season as head coach and when Oklahoma was in the Big 12) that the Sooners have cracked the top 10. Last season, the 60-plus media representatives who make up the AP poll placed Oklahoma at No. 18 to begin the season. The Sooners exceeded that preseason projection, finishing 13th in the final AP poll for 2025.
Last year's Oklahoma team managed to win 10 games despite all kinds of struggles offensively -- something highly uncharacteristic of an OU team historically -- but thanks to an exceptional defensive performance that led the SEC and ranked among the very best in the country, the Sooners went 5-3 against eight ranked teams on their 2025 schedule, with two of the five wins coming in tough road environments at Tennessee and Alabama.
And to be completely honest, Oklahoma should have won two of the three games they lost, creating their own demise at home against both Ole Miss and in the College Football Playoff loss to Alabama.
The preseason poll voters in both the AP and Coaches polls obviously are buying into the notion that the Oklahoma offense will be better this season with more experience, additional weapons at all of the skill positions and a healthy John Mateer at quarterback. The pollsters also recognize that the Sooner defense could even be better. The one caution they have is whether the Sooners can navigate through the brutally difficult 2026 schedule as successfully as they did a year ago.
Oklahoma's first five games, which include stiff road challenges at No. 16 Michigan, No. 3 Georgia and the annual Red River Rivalry hatefest with No. 5 Texas in Dallas, will go a long way toward determining the Sooners chances of ascending further up the rankings and bettering preseason projections.
Ohio State is the top-ranked team in this year's preseason poll, receiving 40 first-place votes. It is the ninth time that the Buckeyes have been voted No. 1 by the AP voters to begin the season and the first since 2015.
Ohio State is now tied with Alabama for the second-most AP No. 1 preseason rankings behind Oklahoma's 10.
Preseason AP Top 25 Poll
1. Ohio State
2. Oregon
3. Georgia
4. Notre Dame
5. Texas
6. Indiana
7. Miami (FL)
8. Texas A&M
9. Ole Miss
10. Oklahoma
11. LSU
12. Texas Tech
13. Alabama
14. BYU
14. USC
16. Michigan
17. Washington
18. Penn State
19. SMU
20. Tennessee
21. Utah
22. Iowa
23. Houston
24. Louisville
25. Missouri
Oklahoma known for not just starting in top 25, but finishing there
The Big Ten Conference claimed the top two spots in the 2026 AP preseason poll. The Oregon Ducks are No. 2, their highest preseason ranking in program history. They have been ranked as high as No. 3 four different times. Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas round out the top five teams.
Defending national champion Indiana will begin the season in the No. 6 spot, followed by Miami (FL), Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Oklahoma, giving the SEC five teams, or half, of the top 10. Nine SEC teams overall are ranked in the top 25, one more than the Big Ten. Four other SEC teams received votes.
The Big Ten's 1-2 ranking at the top of this season's preseason top 25 marks the first time since Oklahoma and Nebraska were in the top two spots out of the Big Eight Conference to begin the 1987 season.
Oklahoma's average preseason ranking since 2000 in the Associated Press poll is 7.1. That includes two times as preseason No. 1 (2012 and 2003) and two other times as the No. 2-ranked team to begin the season (2020 and 2002). The Sooners have been ranked in the top five to begin the season 13 times over that span.
While preseason rankings are fun and get fans excited ahead of every college football season, the only rankings that really matter are the ones at season's end that take into account the season's entire body of work.
At that end of the scale, Oklahoma fans can take pride in knowing that the Sooners have finished the season ranked among the AP's top 25 teams 21 times since the 2000 season,17 times in the top 10 and nine different times in the top five.
Add us as a preferred source on Google