The 2026 college football preseason polls are about to arrive, like the AP Top 25, and the projections leading into them lean hard on brand names and offseason headlines. Here are five programs sitting higher in the early 2026 college football rankings than their rosters and recent results justify. "We compete for national championships every year," the sixth-year Texas coach said at SEC media days. "We put together a roster that can win now," Kiffin said at SEC media days in Tampa. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters ConnectMiami received 165 of 188 first-place votes in the ACC preseason media poll, a margin that treats the conference race as settled.