ATHENS - UGA Football will open the season as the No. 3 football team in the country in the AP poll - meaning the Dawgs are the consensus No. 3 team in the nation.
But Kirby Smart’s Dawgs didn’t receive a single first-place vote on Monday - joining No. 5 Texas as the only team in the top seven to not get at least one first-place nod from voters.
Ohio State opened as the No. 1 team in the nation - grabbing 40 first-place votes. Oregon follwed at No. 2, the No. 3 UGA, No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 5 Texas.
The Longhorns host No. 1 Ohio State early in the season.
Defending national champs No. 6 Indiana got eight first-place votes, while last year’s runner-up No. 7 Miami also got one first-place vote. The top ten included No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 LSU.
No. 13 Alabama was ranked in the Coaches’ Poll at No. 10.
The Southeastern Conference had nine ranked teams while the newly-powerful Big Ten had eight. No. 10 Oklahoma visits No. 16 Michigan early this season as well.
Before 2023, UGA had not started a season ranked No. 1 since 2008, which was Matthew Stafford’s final season at Georgia. Georgia is coming off a 12-2 season in 2025 that saw the Dawgs win their 16th SEC Championship. UGA beat three teams that finished the 2024 season ranked in the final top 12 of the season.
This year the Bulldogs are set to take on three teams ranked in the pre-season top 25 (No. 11 Alabama, No. 10 Ole Miss and No. 9 Oklahoma).
Georgia will begin fall camp this week. Insiders told Dawg Post that the Bulldogs have some special players at one spot in particular.
“I hope they play as many as possible,” one insider said of the tight ends. “Those guys are different.”
Georgia was also picked by the media at the 2026 SEC Football Media Days to beat Texas for the SEC Championship in Atlanta this December.
Kirby told reporters in 2024 that he doesn’t pay attention to pre-season rankings.
“I've never honestly paid any attention to it, and we don't talk about it as a team. The expectation is we're going to develop and worry about today's day, and we don't think about that.”
2026 Preseason Coaches’ Poll
- Ohio State (40)
- Oregon (14)
- Georgia
- Notre Dame (6)
- Texas
- Indiana (8)
- Miami (1)
- Texas A&M
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Texas Tech
- Alabama
- BYU
- USC
- Michigan
- Washington
- Penn State
- Southern Methodist
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Iowa
- Houston
- Louisville
- Missouri
