College football rankings: Ohio State tops Oregon as SEC teams shoot up in Preseason CBS Sports 138
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Ohio State sits atop the preseason CBS Sports 138 college football rankings at No. 1, followed by Oregon at No. 2, with first-place votes split among five teams: Ohio State, Oregon, Notre Dame (No. 3), Texas (No. 4), and Miami (No. 7)
- Georgia (No. 5) and Indiana (No. 6) landed in the top six despite receiving zero first-place votes, which CBS frames as evidence that "no one has a true hold on the ranking" before Week 1
- LSU surged 43 spots to No. 10 under new coach Lane Kiffin, with CBS experts citing massive roster investment and College Football Playoff expectations in Year 1 of the regime
- Florida posted the largest upward move in the rankings at +49 spots to No. 22 after Jon Sumrall's hire retained top talent from last year's squad and added solid portal additions
- Penn State climbed 28 spots to No. 18 with Matt Campbell hired from Iowa State, bringing quarterback Rocco Becht and "a couple of dozen" Cyclone transfers into the Big Ten
- James Madison fell 59 spots to No. 78 after Bob Chesney left for UCLA, with Tulane (-68 after Jon Sumrall's exit to Florida) and North Texas (-88 after Eric Morris departed for Oklahoma State) suffering similar Group of Five collapses
Why it matters: With five teams splitting first-place votes and three Group of Five powers cratering 59-88 spots after losing coaches to the Power Four, the preseason is unusually unsettled — but LSU's and Florida's massive jumps show how quickly a single SEC coaching hire can reset a program's trajectory before a snap is played.
Ask SkimNews
