2026 College Football Rankings: Ole Miss Rises After Win Over LSU, Texas Stays Atop

Joel Klatt said he had a real tug of war at the top of his rankings this week. The choice at the top was tough: Ole Miss coming off a massive win over LSU, or Texas because of its win over Ohio State two weekends ago? Elsewhere, Alabama returns to the top 10 after a wild comeback win over Florida State, and LSU takes a tumble after a shaky showing and a pair of costly injuries.

Now, that three weeks of college football are in the books, here are Klatt's 10 best teams in the country. Klatt's thoughts: I know a lot of you don't watch Utah. I think this is a very good Utah team, and there's something about them that reminds me a little of Ole Miss.

I don't want to say betrayed because I don't think Kyle Whittingham betrayed Utah by going to Michigan, but there's still that sense of, "Wait, you just left us." There was a galvanizing effort around first-year head coach Morgan Scalley. He's a very good football coach who's been at Utah a long time, so he understands the culture, knows how to win at Utah. Utah has an exceptional quarterback in Devon Dampier, and they're sprinkling in Byrd Ficklin.

The Utes beat Utah State 33-0. Dampier is playing really well. Defense looks fantastic, and we know they can run the ball.

Klatt's thoughts: That was a weird game with Florida State, and I know that head coach Kalen DeBoer is going to lament their starts. The Tide started slowly against Kentucky and then again against Florida State, but I do love the way they responded each of those times. Quarterback Keelon Russell was fantastic — the electric run he had down the right side was amazing.

Alabama ended up scoring 50 points after falling behind 21-6. The defense was the disappointment last week — you can't give up that many points and 400 yards through the air to Florida State. Alabama has too good of a secondary to do that.

Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack is going to know that. He's got to go back to the drawing board on defense. Klatt's thoughts: LSU has some injuries now.

Tight end Trey'Dez Green avoided a major injury, but he could miss some time, which is a blow because they're clearly better with him on the field. They lose safety Dashawn Spears to a torn ACL. I think this ranking is fair.

That's still a very good football team, no doubt, and you'd assume they can clean some things up — offensive execution early in games, in particular. But they do have a really tough remaining schedule. They've still got to face Texas A&M, at Kentucky — great win against A&M this weekend, by the way.

They've got Mississippi State, a ranked team with a good quarterback. They still have Alabama, they still have No. 1 Texas, and they still have to travel to Tennessee.

Klatt's thoughts: Notre Dame is solid, but they haven't done anything that I've been like, "Wow," this year. They beat Wisconsin, who I think is improved. They beat Michigan State, who I think is improved.

The Irish still need to show me they can run the football consistently, because that's part of their DNA — they're not going to turn into the greatest passing team in college football all of a sudden, even with quarterback C.J. Carr. So, the run game is where I need them to take the next jump.

They won that game over Michigan State 27-10 — third straight game under four yards per carry. Defense looks fine. The run game is where I'm a little leery of what Notre Dame is doing.

Klatt's thoughts: Second straight shutout — they beat Western Kentucky 38-0. Running back Turbo Richard ran it well. Charlie Becker from Nashville, Tennessee, is still off to a great start.

Indiana's in there at number six, they've earned that spot. I know they haven't played anybody, and you can scream at me all you want, but remember, this is still Curt Cignetti. Indiana is still on a massive winning streak, Cignetti still hasn't lost in his home stadium, and they've got some big ones in Bloomington this year, namely Ohio State.

Klatt's thoughts: I flipped it here from last week. The Hurricanes looked great in the first half — looked like a team that can go win the national championship — but then they kind of stumble through the second half. Quaterback Darian Mensah completed his first 24 pass attempts.

If you take those 24 and go back to the previous game, he was on a streak of 35 straight completions — that's pretty amazing. Wide receiver Malachi Toney is catching a million passes. He's second in college football in both receptions and receiving yards.

He's electric. You know how I feel about him. Klatt's thoughts: I know I said there was no team flawless in college football.

Everybody on that list so far, I can sense like, "OK, they might have a flaw." I don't know about Georgia. They're the one I'm going to put a little asterisk next to. They're playing like the best team in the country again against nobody, really.

Georgia was so bored with Arkansas — remember, Arkansas got drilled by Utah the week before — that the Bulldogs were running defensive lineman drills during a timeout. Also, the running game looks great so far. Real test coming up this week against that Oklahoma defense — we'll see if they can run against that front.

They should be able to beat OU, because the Sooners cannot play offense right now. Klatt's thoughts: I didn't want to penalize Ohio State for continuing to play that out-of-conference game against Texas. Right now, this is what Ohio State's trying to figure out — they don't have a quarterback that's going to equate the numbers for them in the run game like a Will Howard or a Justin Fields, so they're trying to find a running back in their stable that can be a plus runner in the red zone or in short yardage.

Those two things are linked together, and that's what we'll be watching as the season goes along. The Buckeyes got knocked back one spot because Ole Miss has done more than they have. I'm not going to penalize Ohio State, which is still one of the best teams in the country.

Klatt's thoughts: I had a big tug of war at the top of my rankings because I wanted to put Ole Miss at No. 1. Nobody has done more than Ole Miss in the first month of the season.

Now, I would still argue that Texas has a better overall win, but I'm going to go Ole Miss at two. I wanted to put them at one — I really did, and even right now, I still want to do it. But Ole Miss is going to be number two.

The Rebels have earned it. They have, outside of Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith, the best player in college football. So, they're going to be number two.

Klatt's thoughts: Texas. I'm still honoring that win over Ohio State. They kind of sleepwalked through that game against Texas State, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here because of the win over Ohio State.

I just want to make this very clear: that was a tough decision. I wanted to put Ole Miss at number one. I really did.