As we get closer to the start of the 2026 college football season, more and more rankings and award watch lists are surfacing in preparation. On Thursday morning, ESPN's Bill Connelly put out his final preseason SP+ rankings for the upcoming season.
If you are unfamiliar with the SP+, Connelly describes it as "a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking."
Essentially, it assigns a numerical value to a team's offense, defense, and overall units, looking at the strength of schedule and parsing out the top teams in the nation accordingly.
Connelly put out an early version of the SP+ back in the spring, and his updated final preseason rankings have the Oregon Ducks once again among the top teams in the nation. Oregon is ranked No. 2 in the final SP+ numbers, just behind the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Ducks — 29.2 SP+ compared to Ohio State's 32.7 — have the No. 1 offense in the nation and the No. 2 defense, whereas the Buckeyes have the No. 1 defense and the No. 2 offense. Both teams are tied with an average projected win total at 10.2, which is among the highest in the nation.
There are three Big Ten teams inside the top 10 of the SP+, with the Indiana Hoosiers coming in at No. 5. Meanwhile, the SEC has four teams — No. 4 Georgia, No. 6 Texas, No. 9 Texas A&M, and No. 10 LSU.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: ESPN SP+ ranks Oregon behind Ohio State in final preseason projections