{"id":755511,"date":"2026-07-10T22:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T22:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/755511\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T22:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T22:35:10","slug":"ohio-state-ranks-no-1-in-espns-college-football-power-index-entering-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/755511\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State Ranks No. 1 in ESPN\u2019s College Football Power Index Entering 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                   Ohio State is the No. 1 team in ESPN\u2019s College Football Power Index.                <\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn ESPN\u2019s initial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/fpi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FPI <\/a>release this week, Ohio State topped the rankings with a score of 28.7. The Buckeyes ranked ahead of Texas, Notre Dame, Oregon and Georgia in the top five, while Indiana, Miami, Alabama, LSU and Texas Tech rounded out the top 10.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAccording to ESPN Analytics, Ohio State has a projected record of 10.2-2.4 this season. The Buckeyes have a 9.2% chance to finish undefeated against the nation\u2019s No. 13 strength of schedule \u2014 one that includes matchups with six teams ranked inside the top 25 of FPI: Texas (No. 2), Oregon (No. 4), Indiana (No. 6), USC (No. 13), Michigan (No. 15) and Iowa (No. 25). Their games against the Longhorns, Hoosiers, Trojans and Hawkeyes will all come on the road.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tESPN Analytics gives Ohio State a 38.8% chance to win the Big Ten this season. The Buckeyes also have a 75.7% chance to reach the College Football Playoff, a 28.2% chance to make the CFP championship game and a 17.1% chance to win the national title. All three projections are the highest in the country.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tESPN\u2019s Bill Connelly also has Ohio State ranked No. 1 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/48306284\/2026-college-football-sp+-rankings-138-fbs-teams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SP+<\/a> entering the 2026 season. Based on returning production, recent history, recruiting and coaching changes, Connelly\u2019s metric gives the Buckeyes an overall score of 31.8, including the nation\u2019s No. 2 offense (40.6), No. 1 defense (8.8) and No. 67 special teams (0.1).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHere\u2019s a look at where each of Ohio State\u2019s opponents rank in FPI and SP+:\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSept. 5 \u2013 Ball State: No. 134 FPI \/ No. 134 SP+<br \/>Sept. 12 \u2013 at Texas: No. 2 FPI \/ No. 6 SP+<br \/>Sept. 19 \u2013 Kent State: No. 135 FPI \/ No. 128 SP+<br \/>Sept. 26 \u2013 Illinois: No. 39 FPI \/ No. 33 SP+<br \/>Oct. 3 \u2013 at Iowa: No. 25 FPI \/ No. 22 SP+<br \/>Oct. 10 \u2013 Maryland: No. 61 FPI \/ No. 55 SP+<br \/>Oct. 17 \u2013 at Indiana: No. 6 FPI \/ No. 5 SP+<br \/>Oct. 24 \u2013 Bye Week<br \/>Oct. 31 \u2013 at USC: No. 13 FPI \/ No. 13 SP+<br \/>Nov. 7 \u2013 Oregon: No. 4 FPI \/ No. 2 SP+<br \/>Nov. 14 \u2013 Northwestern: No. 60 FPI \/ No. 49 SP+<br \/>Nov. 21 \u2013 at Nebraska: No. 30 FPI \/ No. 37 SP+<br \/>Nov. 28 \u2013 Michigan: No. 15 FPI \/ No. 14 SP+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ohio State is the No. 1 team in ESPN\u2019s College Football Power Index. In ESPN\u2019s initial FPI release&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-755511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}