Through six full weeks of play (plus the appetizer that was Week Zero in late August), the 2026 college football season is taking real shape. With its win at Alabama, along with former No. 1 Texas’s stunning loss to Oklahoma, Georgia is now the nearly undisputed top team in the country. The Crimson Tide and a bevy of one-loss SEC teams are firmly in the mix, as are the best teams in the Big Ten—Ohio State, Indiana … UCLA?—though the other Power 2 league doesn’t appear to have the same strength at the top and middle tiers this season.
The race for the Heisman Trophy is also taking shape. We’ve cycled through a number of favorites, as is so often the case in September and early October. CJ Carr and Arch Manning opened the year atop the odds lists, Trinidad Chambliss jumped to the front of the line after a dramatic win over former coach Lane Kiffin and LSU, and now, after a truly dominant start to the season, Jeremiah Smith is in pole position with eight more weeks of regular-season games left.
