Baylor Football Unranked in Preseason Top 25 — But Faces 3 Ranked Teams

The Bears will have a lot to prove in 2026.

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The 2026 preseason AP Top 25 poll was released on Monday and as everyone expected, Baylor football will begin the season unranked.

It's not surprising after Dave Aranda's program went 5-7 last season, a year in which Baylor was expected to compete for a Big 12 title. The Bears were named a team that could be a dark-horse College Football Playoff candidate, but an opening-season loss to Auburn was a sign of things to come.

The Bears couldn't stop anyone's rushing attack and Baylor made too many mistakes on offense. Entering the new season, Aranda hit the transfer portal hard and landed a new-look offensive and defensive line — along with former five-star quarterback DJ Lagway.

Baylor to face three ranked teams

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While Baylor is going to start the season as a team that needs to prove itself, the Bears will see three teams this season that will begin the season ranked.

And luckily, for the Bears, all three of them come towards the end of the season.

Texas Tech (No. 12), BYU (No. 14), and Houston (No. 23) are all on the Bears' schedule this season. While Baylor is lucky it doesn't have to play each of these teams until the end of the year, it's going to be a gauntlet for Dave Aranda's team.

Baylor's final three games of the season will be at BYU, home against Texas Tech, and away to Houston. If the Bears are in contention for anything this season, it will be because Baylor made a statement in those final three games.

Two other teams receiving votes

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Again, Baylor isn't receiving votes, and probably shouldn't be, but the Bears will see two teams that are.

Rival TCU received 11 votes from the voters, while Auburn received three.

For the second season in a row, Baylor will play Auburn to open the season. But instead of the Bears returning the favor and heading to play at the Tigers, Auburn and the Bears will meet in Atlanta for a glorified neutral-site game that suits Auburn.

The Tigers, like Baylor, have a lot of new faces, and that's mostly due to USF coach Alex Golesh becoming the new head coach. He brought quarterback Byrum Brown along with him, and that will be the Bears' first challenge of the year.

As for TCU, the Bears will take on the Horned Frogs in Waco, a week after Baylor gets a bye. Josh Hoover is no longer there, but TCU brought in Harvard transfer Jaden Craig, who is a dual-threat signal caller.