Real or fool's gold? College football's 8 most polarizing teams for 2026

In college football, as in so many other facets of life, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

When games have yet to kick off and there’s nothing off of which to judge a team other than roster retention, coaching changes, depth charts, statistical projections and, most of all, vibes, that’s especially true.

Entering the 2026 season, there’s a wide variance of opinion on a number of teams, including some that found their way into the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll. Some are programs that have struggled the past few years, but have been re-energized by the arrival of a new coach. Others are historic powerhouses that have faded recently, but still have built-in name recognition and goodwill.

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To some, these teams are afterthoughts who might struggle to make a bowl. To others, though, they’re undervalued assets — ones that, if things break right, could even find their way into the College Football Playoff.

Who are these squads for the upcoming season? Here’s a closer look at the most polarizing teams in college football:

Among national championship contenders, there’s perhaps no team with a wider range in opinion than Ole Miss. The No. 10 Rebels bring back a number of top contributors — namely, quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, running back Kewan Lacy and defensive lineman Will Echoles — from a team that was five points away from playing for a national title last season. They also famously just lost the coach who led them to one of the greatest seasons in school history and the program’s longest run of sustained success post-integration. Pete Golding did an outstanding job rallying the team to the playoff semifinals last season after Lane Kiffin’s messy exit to LSU, but how will the first-time head coach fare after a full offseason in the job and with new coordinators running the offense and defense? If Golding’s got the goods, this team has as good of a chance as anyone to win a championship. If he’s not up to the task, though, this is a talented group that could very easily underachieve.

On one hand, the Tigers have won fewer than 10 games only twice since 2011. On the other hand, two of those have come in the past three seasons. Dabo Swinney built a program synonymous with frustrating shortcomings into one of the most powerful forces in the sport nationally for a decade, but Clemson’s fortunes have waned in recent years as criticism has mounted of Swinney’s approach (namely, his aversion to transfers). Swinney is still an excellent coach and there’s still plenty of talent on the Tigers’ roster, like preseason All-American linebacker Sammy Brown. Taken together, it was enough to get them a spot at No. 23 in the preseason Coaches Poll. But after a 7-6 season in 2025, and with at least four losses in each of the past three seasons, it’s fair to wonder if Clemson’s reign as a perennial playoff contender has come and gone.

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Bob Chesney has won everywhere he has coached, from Division III Salve Regina to Division II Assumption to FCS Holy Cross to James Madison, the last of which he led to a playoff appearance in his second season last year. After taking over a strong program from Curt Cignetti at JMU, he inherits a rebuild at UCLA, which went just 3-9 last season and has won more than eight games in a season just once since 2015. He brings 10 players over with him from James Madison, including do-everything star Wayne Knight, and managed to keep quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who still has time to live up to the immense promise he brought into college as a five-star recruit. The Bruins likely won’t be a wagon immediately, but for the first time in a while, the vibes are decidedly up in Westwood.

Since a Cotton Bowl appearance at the end of the 2020 season, the Gators have been mired in mediocrity, going 29-34 during that time. They’ve got newfound hope with the arrival of coach Jon Sumrall, who is 43-12 as a head coach and just took Tulane to the College Football Playoff. Sumrall has made inspired hires for his staff, none of them more impactful than offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, and brought aboard a top-30 transfer portal class. Florida isn’t being discussed as a national title contender — it was ninth of 16 teams in the SEC’s preseason poll — but regardless, a team that has won more than six games in a season just once in the past five years received the second-most votes of squads outside the top 25 in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll. Sumrall’s more than proven his chops as a coach, but can he turn it around that quickly?

Under Kyle Whittingham, the Utes were one of the steadiest winners in the sport, with at least nine victories in eight of the past 12 seasons. After 21 years, Whittingham is gone, having stepped down from the post before quickly resettling at Michigan. Utah begins the season No. 21 in the Coaches Poll and brings back some strong pieces from last season’s 11-win team, including quarterback Devon Dampier and return specialist Mana Carvalho, but there are understandably questions about first-time head coach Morgan Scalley, who had been the program’s coach-in-waiting for years (an arrangement that seldom ever works). The next several months will provide a revealing glimpse at how much of the Utes’ sustained success was due to Whittingham and what he had built in Salt Lake City.

Nine months ago, the Cowboys were finishing off a 2025 season in which they went 1-11, their fewest wins in a season since 1991. Now, they’re being discussed as a potential playoff sleeper. What changed? A whole lot. Eric Morris steps in to replace Mike Gundy as head coach after leading North Texas to the best season in program history. He’s not heading to Stillwater alone, either, as he brings several key pieces from the highest-scoring offense in the FBS last season. That group of newcomers is led by quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who threw for an FBS-leading 4,379 yards last season (406 more than the next-closest player) while piloting an offense that averaged 45.1 points per game. There are questions about how that production will translate going from the American to the Big 12 and exactly how much Oklahoma State can improve in just one season. But after Gundy’s decorated tenure ended with a pair of down seasons, the Cowboys once again have reason for optimism.

The Golden Bears were below average and often forgettable under Justin Wilcox, going 48-55 in his nine-year tenure, but heading into 2026, there’s plenty of reason for excitement. Much of it centers around quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, a former five-star recruit who had an electric freshman season and stuck with the program through its coaching transition. Since being hired, new coach Tosh Lupoi has burnished his reputation as an ace recruiter by surrounding Sagapolutele with more talent, bringing in a top-15 transfer portal haul. Cal has a favorable schedule, too, one that has some dreaming of the program’s first season with more than eight wins since 2008. Is that hope enough to override years of mediocrity, a cash-strapped athletic department and a conference in which it’s 3,000 miles away from most of the teams it plays? We’ll see.

This time a year ago, the Gamecocks were one of the darlings of the sport, the preseason No. 13 team bringing back most of its biggest stars after going 9-4 in 2024. They fell drastically short of those lofty expectations, suffering through a 4-8 season that included just one win in SEC play. This season, it brings back one of the most explosive quarterbacks in the sport in LaNorris Sellers and one of the nation’s most disruptive defensive players in edge rusher Dylan Stewart. Coach Shane Beamer made some needed tweaks, too, working to shore up the offensive line and bringing in a new offensive coordinator in Kendal Briles after an inexplicably poor 2025 season. Under Beamer, South Carolina has alternated between strong seasons and less-than-stellar ones, going from 8-5 in 2022 to 5-7 in 2023 to 9-4 in 2024 to 4-8 last season. If that trend continues, it could be one of the sport’s surprises this season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY Sports: Real or fool's gold? College football's 8 most polarizing teams for 2026