{"id":802678,"date":"2026-08-04T18:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/802678\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:48:09","slug":"where-notre-dame-ranks-in-preseason-usa-today-coaches-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/802678\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Notre Dame ranks in preseason USA TODAY Coaches Poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame ranks fifth in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll<\/a>, which dropped Tuesday. The Irish received five first-place votes and slotted behind Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia and Texas.<\/p>\n

Fifth-year head coach Marcus Freeman<\/a>\u2018s group was one of six teams to receive at least one first-place vote, indicating the wide-open nature of college football in 2026. Ohio State took the top spot with 38 first-place votes, by far the most in the country, but the Buckeyes are far from the unanimous preseason favorite.<\/p>\n

Indiana (14), Georgia (7), Oregon (6) and Texas (2) also received first-place votes, with the Hoosiers retaining the benefit of the doubt as the defending national champions. Miami did not earn any first-place votes, but there is a sizable gap between the No. 7 Hurricanes and the No. 8 Texas A&M Aggies in voting points.<\/p>\n

The coaches who voted (and for what it\u2019s worth, Freeman is not one of them this season) clearly see seven teams they believe can win the national title in 2026, and Notre Dame is one of them.<\/p>\n

The Coaches Poll also sheds light on Notre Dame\u2019s regular-season schedule, which includes three teams ranked in the top 20. Miami comes in at No. 7, BYU lands at 15 (just behind the team it replaced on said schedule, USC) and SMU, a sneaky contender in the ACC, is No. 20.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the good news for the Irish. The bad news is by Blue & Gold<\/a>\u2018s count, 30 teams outside the top 25 received at least one vote. Only one \u2014 Navy with just 3 voting points \u2014 is on Notre Dame\u2019s schedule. The Irish play as top-heavy a slate as they\u2019ve played in recent memory, meaning they must take advantage when they earn the chance to beat ranked teams.<\/p>\n

The Coaches Poll is one of two major top-25 rankings On3 will track throughout the season. The other is the AP Top 25. The preseason AP Poll \u2014 for which Blue & Gold senior writer Eric Hansen is a voter \u2014\u00a0comes out at noon ET on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the entire USA Today Coaches Poll.<\/p>\n

Full Coaches Poll: Notre Dame ranks fifth<\/p>\n

Ohio State (1741 voting points, 38 first-place votes)<\/p>\n

Oregon (1637, 6)<\/p>\n

Georgia (1591, 7)<\/p>\n

Texas (1544, 2)<\/p>\n

Notre Dame (1524, 6)<\/p>\n

Indiana (1522, 14)<\/p>\n

Miami (1409)<\/p>\n

Texas A&M (1174)<\/p>\n

Oklahoma (1104)<\/p>\n

Ole Miss (1096)<\/p>\n

Alabama (1050)<\/p>\n

Texas Tech (1034)<\/p>\n

LSU (951)<\/p>\n

USC (838)<\/p>\n

BYU (781)<\/p>\n

Michigan (719)<\/p>\n

Penn State (463)<\/p>\n

Tennessee (428)<\/p>\n

Washington (406)<\/p>\n

SMU (378)<\/p>\n

Utah (313)<\/p>\n

Iowa (291)<\/p>\n

Clemson (235)<\/p>\n

Houston (194)<\/p>\n

Missouri (158)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Notre Dame ranks fifth in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll, which dropped Tuesday. The Irish received five first-place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-802678","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\/802678","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=802678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}