The Associated Press released its preseason top 25 and we finally have some college football rankings to debate. The biggest topic of conversation will center around what the AP voters got right and what they got wrong. In this case, it’s about the teams they ranked ahead of the 2026 season who won’t finish ranked at the end of the year.
Remember when LSU, Clemson and Penn State were all ranked inside the top 10 and finished unranked? Here’s who could have that same fate this season.
No. 9 Ole Miss Rebels
Based on last year’s preseason rankings, at least one team inside the top 10 won’t finish the season ranked. In this case, there’s a very good chance it’s Ole Miss. This is a tough one because on one hand, they could absolutely go on a tear through their SEC slate. On the other, they could end up not being as good as they were a year ago and suffer a few unanticipated losses.Â
Texas, Georgia, LSU (for reasons more than football) and Oklahoma will be their toughest games and last year, they proved they could hold their own in the SEC. Then there are teams like Florida and Auburn hunting for upset wins. Trinidad Chambliss was an unknown going into last season. Now defenses know how to attack him and that will be the difference in how much success Ole Miss has. The emotions of the Lane Kiffin drama propelled this team on an improbable College Football Playoff run. They regress a bit after coming back down to earth in Pete Golding’s first full season.
No. 13 Oklahoma SoonersÂ
Oklahoma is a wild card team; they could either be one of the top teams in the SEC and John Mateer, in his second season, looks like the previous Oklahoma quarterbacks that are now playing in the NFL. Or, the Sooners could be in over their head and get humbled early on. Texas stunned Oklahoma last year in a game Mateer probably shouldn’t have played in. The Longhorns got better this offseason.Â
The Sooners also end the season against Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Missouri, who are all ranked in the preseason top 25, and two of those teams are in the top 10. The final three games of the season for Oklahoma will either send them to the College Football Playoff or have them finishing the year unranked.
No. 17 Washington Huskies
After brief offseason drama surrounding Demond Williams Jr, Washington is set to be a force in the Big Ten this year and start the year ranked No. 17, per the AP's first preseason poll of the 2026 season. While that may be a fair analysis at this point in the year, looking at Washington’s schedule, it’s very likely their run in the top 25 won’t last long. Their saving grace is that their toughest games are at the end of the season, giving them time to build up a strong enough ranking to stay inside the top 25.Â
Along with facing Indiana and Oregon in the final two games of the year, Washington will have to play No. 18 Penn State and at The Coliseum against No. 14 USC. I’m not going to say that Washington loses all of those games, but if they lose one or both, it will certainly affect their early-season ranking.Â
They finished the year 9-4 last year and, while getting ranked at one point, they didn’t finish the year ranked. There’s a good chance this year they start ranked and don’t finish ranked again. It will come down to the Penn State and USC games. It’s less likely they beat Indiana or Oregon, though not completely impossible. Â
No. 20 Tennessee Volunteers
I understand why Tennessee is ranked to start the college football season, but there’s one key thing that’s going to hold the Volunteers back from being as good as you might think to start the year. Their quarterback is either going to be a redshirt freshman (George MacIntyre) or a true freshman (Faizon Brandon). Considering the Vols will have to face Texas, Texas A&M, LSU and Alabama this year. Not saying freshman quarterbacks can’t be good, but those four games will determine if the Vols can finish ranked or not.Â
They’ll have a lot of opportunities to build a decent resume. If South Carolina resurrects the hype that was around them in 2025, they could be a good win. Kentucky could be a team that has a good season as well. They don’t have to win all of their ranked games, but they certainly have to win at least two and possibly three to prove they are one of the 25 best teams at the end of the year.
No. 22 Iowa Hawkeyes
Iowa is always a team that floats around the top 25 either at the beginning of the season or makes a late appearance toward the end of the season. This season, godspeed to the Hawkeyes, who have one of the toughest starts to Big Ten play of any team in the conference. They open conference play against No. 16 Michigan, then host No. 1 Ohio State before heading west to No. 17 Washington.Â
They have to pull off an upset in one of those three games to most likely stay ranked. The rest of their schedule is formidable, but that doesn’t mean they’ll avoid being on upset alert either. Iowa isn’t a high scoring team which isn’t a bad thing, but also means if they get in a shootout, it’s not in their favor. On SI is predicting the Hawkeyes go 10-2 this year, running the gamut after consecutive losses to Michigan and then Ohio State.Â
That’s not farfetched and at 10-2 could give them an outside chance at one of the at-large CFP seeds depending on how things pan out. But if they lose to the only three, preseason ranked opponents on their schedule, it will be hard to see how they can finish ranked, especially starting at the bottom of the rankings.Â
No. 25 Missouri Tigers
Missouri is a sleeper team that could either stun the SEC or fall to the background. They plucked Austin Simmons from Ole Miss out of the transfer portal and are destined to build on the successes of last season before Beau Pribula missed most of the year to injury. As good as this offense can be with Ahmad Hardy, the Tigers are going to have an uphill battle in conference play. Every ranked team they play this season is currently ranked in the top 10.Â
This is a brutal schedule for a team that isn’t necessarily the strongest team in the conference. Their non-conference slate is easy enough; they shouldn’t have too much trouble. But the second half of the season will be a gauntlet and it’s hard to see them surviving that at this point.Â
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