Top 5 College Football Teams Preseason 2026 Analysis
2026 college football preview: Top 5 teams in focus. Marcus Freeman boosts Notre Dame; the Miami Hurricanes rise. However, Indiana stands above the rest.
Video Transcript
All right, we are two weeks away from the start of college football.
Right around the corner, we have week zero coming up.
TCU and North Carolina from Dublin, that should be a very entertaining ballgame.
So I get asked all the time, who are my top teams in college football?
I haven't really put that out there until right now.
My top five college football teams, preseason-wise, for the 2026 season, let's start it off at number five.
I believe it's Notre Dame.
Look, Marcus Freeman I think has done a great job at recruiting.
Who in their right mind would've thought that Marcus Freeman was gonna be an upgrade from Brian Kelly?
Brian Kelly was there for over a decade at Notre Dame.
That football program never, ever achieved, really, outside of one year, a shot at a national championship.
Look, one thing I'll always say about Notre Dame, Notre Dame at times is one of the most overhyped college football program in the country.
In the last 53 years, they've won two national championships, 1973 and 1988.
To sit there and say that Notre Dame has been a national contender each and every single year over the last 53 years is crazy.
However, the brand is huge, and it is truly one of the biggest brands in sports, in American sports.
But I do believe they've got a lot of talent on that football team, and I do think that that Miami-Notre Dame game in November of this year is gonna tell us a lot about who may play in the national championship game.
At number four, I'm gonna go Georgia.
I think the Georgia Bulldogs and Kirby Smart are back.
I think when you look at what that football program has done over the last seven, eight years with Kirby Smart, I think that football program is back.
They play in a great conference.
They've got a very unique schedule this year.
They've got one of the top five recruiting, programs in the country this year with these kids coming in, and I do think Georgia is, I think, one of the best, if not the best team in the Southeastern Conference.
At number three, there is no doubt the best roster year in and year out unfortunately resides in Columbus.
I say that because I do look at Ohio State as a rival to my college, but I've got Ohio State.
It's truly one of the greatest rosters.
Ryan Day, in my opinion, is a guy, though, that will always be on the hot seat when you're at Ohio State.
Even if you go and you lose one ballgame, if that one game is to the guys up north, Michigan, you're always going to be on the hot seat.
And when you don't win a Big Ten championship or you don't win a national championship, Ohio State is by far the most pressurized job in all of college football.
Ohio State year in and year out, look at the draft.
You wanna know where your program sits and how the NFL reveres your program?
Take a look at how those programs are received when the April draft comes up every year.
Look at all the first-round draft choices that Ohio State puts in the NFL.
Every single year, they get the best roster in football, and they have, I believe this year, the best roster.
I personally don't think they have the right guy at the helm in Ryan Day, but that is truly one of the best programs, if not the preeminent program with talent this year at number three, Ohio State.
I'm an old school guy.
I think two teams that play for the national championship are your one and two teams.
At number two, I have the University of Miami.
Mario Cristobal has done something I thought was almost unattainable.
He's actually turned the program around.
If Mario can't do it, nobody can do it.
He is a man that played for that program, won two national titles himself.
And folks, it used to be commonplace.
It wasn't how Miami lost games.
It was the fact when you upset Miami, those were just iconic moments for other programs.
My time at Miami, three years, we were 31 and one.
Started a 58 home win streak.
That was history, an ancient history.
That's over 35 years ago.
Miami's starting to build that back, and I feel it.
41 yards away from winning a national championship.
So close, but yet so far.
When people stop asking me this question, "Sills, when's the Canes back, and are the Canes back?"
I say, "Stop asking me that question, because you answer it with that question."
Until they win a national championship, Miami is not back.
You have to win.
And number one is Indiana.
How could you bet against Kurt Signetti and the Indiana Hoosiers?
You just can't.
What this man has done in Bloomington is unbelievable.
It's truly one of the greatest stories in the history of American sports.
You have to understand something about Indiana.
Indiana hadn't been to a Rose Bowl since 1967 when they played OJ in the Rose Bowl.
Indiana's the worst program in the country, and for them to win a national title, 16 and 0, is absolutely incredible.
And great program, great talent.
I got them number one again
