SportsRatings

Here is our pre-season projected Final Top 25 Committee Rankings and analysis. We rank every team here based on what type of season they can expect to have; this is different from a pure quality rating in our Pre-season Top 138 , which doesn't worry about the schedule they will face. This ranking does. I'm going to update the pre-season numbers at the static page until the FBS kickoff on August 29 (trying to account for the 5-year eligibility court rulings if possible), and update week by week during the season of course. Notre Dame was our #2 ranked team in the pre-season top 138 but they end up #1 in the Projected Final Committee Rankings. #1 Indiana has to settle for 2nd place. Why? Schedule. Indiana plays a tough Big Ten schedule. But Notre Dame has the #69 SOS in the country, with two decent-sized hurdles in Miami and BYU (finishing #10 and #17 on this projection). The Irish have a 1 in 3 chance to go undefeated and don't have a pesky conference championship game to...

Without further ado, the SportsRatings 2026 pre-season rankings, #1 to #138 Key: 2025 record , Strength ranking for 2025, with '25 Offense and Defense ranking This is the starting basis for ranking Returning talent rank (scaled 1-138); Portal "class" ranking; " Pure " 2026 ranking; Program rank The 2026 team consists of returning players and those acquired through the Portal; this forms the bulk of a team's rating, the Pure 2026 rating. This is modified by the Program rank, which tracks the current baseline rating of the program, and accounts for recruiting 2026 projected record game-by-game (and cumulative); Bowl  eligibility odds; Rank within conference Brief rundown of team's personnel losses and portal gains  Team schedule with % chance to win for each game Schedule rundown (note: Pac-12 games with a * are tentatively scheduled and actual matchups will be determined later in the year) Updates : These notes refer to a situation not accounted fo...