Ohio State Is No. 1 Again, But Its 2026 Schedule Is Absolutely Brutal

The AP Poll released its first iteration of the top 25, and unsurprisingly, Ohio State begins the year at the top. In the modern era of college football, you could see entire conferences with brand new rosters at the start of the season, so any team with strong continuity is going to thrive in preseason polls.

Ohio State is, of course, returning the best player in college football, Jeremiah Smith, but it’s more than just one superstar leading the way for the Buckeyes. At quarterback, they also return Julian Sayin, who quietly finished 4th in Heisman voting last season.

Critics of Ohio State seem very concerned with Julian Sayin and his struggle in big games last season. Those criticisms are fair, but Sayin’s three worst performances were against Texas in the first start of his career, Miami, who played in the national title, and Indiana, who won the whole thing. Sayin struggled in those three games, averaging just 223 yards passing, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception on a 67% completion percentage. These numbers were far below his season averages of 258 yards, 2.3 TDs, just over ½ an interception, and a college-football-best 77% completion percentage.

I know there are reasons to be concerned; I just don’t think that’s what we're going to see heading into 2026. Reports out of camp have claimed that Sayin has easily looked like the best quarterback in the building, with Tavien St. Clair struggling to even win the backup job. More importantly than Sayin looking strong is the massive improvements being made by the offensive line. This unit will be one of the more experienced groups in college football and should make life a lot easier for Sayin this year.

Speaking of making Sayin’s life easy, Ohio State is also looking to find more success on the ground this year. Bo Jackson will get a lot of the attention in his second season at Ohio State, but there’s a very real chance he isn’t even the starter for most of this year. Isaiah West has dominated through summer training camps and is in line to get a much heavier share of carries this year. Jackson was fantastic in his freshman year, so if he’s losing his job to West, you should have more than enough talent in the backfield.

One of the biggest question marks on offense comes at receiver, but it’s a good type of problem to have. UTSA transfer Devin McCuin is looking to pull away at wide receiver two, but there’s been a lot of positivity from freshman Chris Henry Jr. and senior Brandon Inniss as well.

With all of this talent, it feels like a no-brainer that Ohio State would start the year at number one, but the defense is in the middle of a complete overhaul. However, I’d expect this to feel more like a retooling instead of a reworking.

For defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, it’s far easier to retool when you have Kenyatta Jackson Jr. on the edge. He’s had an amazing offseason, and I think he will play himself into being a first-round pick this spring. He’s a 6’6” athletic freak who will have to be a cornerstone for this defense.

Arvell Reese might have been the first defensive player drafted from Ohio State in this past draft, but Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs feel almost impossible to replace on defense. The entire defensive unit will have to take massive steps quickly as there’s an obvious step down in top-end talent, but 2026’s defense could have more depth.

Miami’s offense looked so great against Ohio State because they were able to slow down the star players. Ohio State might not have as many stars to game plan against, but I think that creates a ton of opportunities for my cohesiveness, given that they were one of the best defenses in the country last year.

Ohio State finished last year with a sour taste in its mouth. Yes, they finally beat Michigan again last year, but then they lost the Big 10 championship, and then their subsequent playoff game as well. They’re going to have to be better this year, as they will face what is probably the hardest schedule in college football, with trips to #5 Texas, #22 Iowa, #6 Indiana, #14 USC, and home games against #2 Oregon and #16 Michigan. We will quickly find out whether this was a proper preseason rating for the Buckeyes, or if the Big 10 is being treated like the new SEC.