Where Utah football lands in way-too-early top 25 rankings for 2026

Looking at where prognosticators have the Utes in their respective rankings for next season

Utah Utes head coach Morgan Scalley leads the program into its first season with him in charge. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The sheer chaos of the transfer portal and staff changes going on around the country has forced Utah, like most non-College Football Playoff teams, to turn its focus toward the 2026 season for the last few weeks.

Morgan Scalley has been busy assembling his first-year staff, retaining players and scouring the portal for new talent to bring into his program ever since the Utes' 2025 campaign came to end on New Year's Eve, with hardly any down time mixed in for the Salt Lake City native.

By the time Utah knew who'd still be on the rooster for next season, the season hadn't officially ended thanks to the College Football Playoff's quirky calendar. While the portal had opened and closed for everyone else, the final two teams standing still had one more game to play — nearly two months after their respective regular season finales.

Now that a champion is crowned and the confetti from Indiana's historic win over Miami is cleaned up, the whole sport is ready to look ahead to what 2026 will hold.

To be clear, just because the portal is closed doesn't mean the players in it are left out to dry; there isn't a deadline for when a transfer has to decided their next school. The "closing" of the portal simply means no more names can enter (at least, in theory), so there's still a few more waves of player movement to come before spring ball starts in March and April.

Uncertainty surrounding most rosters around the country isn't stopping analysts and pundits from projecting what teams will be considered at the top of the sport's hierarchy next season, though. A simple "way-too-early college football top 25" search on Google brings up several rankings and prediction articles from numerous outlets and publications, despite the fact most teams aren't done in the portal just yet.

For the Utes, the only guarantee they've been afforded regarding next season — outside of the players they've been able to retain this offseason — is the slate of teams they'll face on the field. With the release of the Big 12 conference schedule earlier this week, Utah has a better understanding of what its path to the league championship game and subsequently, road to the College Football Playoff, looks like between September and November.

Utah's 2026 Schedule

• Sept. 3 vs. Idaho
• Sept. 12 vs. Arkansas
• Sept. 19 vs. Utah State
• Sept. 26 at Iowa State
• Oct. 3: BYE
• Oct. 10 vs. Kansas
• Oct. 17 at Colorado
• Oct. 24 vs. Houston
• Oct. 31 at Cincinnati
• Nov. 7 vs. BYU
• Nov. 14 at Arizona
• Nov. 21 at TCU
• Nov. 28 vs. West Virginia

Of course, the caliber of teams Utah faces in the regular season will have a great impact on the Utes' postseason outlook. But for now, Utah's biggest offseason moves — like keeping Devon Dampier in the building, for example — are all prognosticators have to look at when they build out their preseason top 25 rankings.

On first glance, it doesn't appear everyone is on the same page about Utah in 2026; some project the Utes as a top-15 squad while others have them squeaking into the top 25. But again, no one really has any clue about what next season will like. Case in point: Utah started the 2025 season unranked in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, only to finish at No. 14 following its 11-2 campaign.

That all said, here's where the Utes stand in early rankings for 2026.

Utah in Way-Too-Early Top 25 Rankings

• Sporting News — No. 15
• On3 — No. 16
• Sports Illustrated — No. 17
• Bleacher Report — No. 17
• CBS Sports — No. 18
• USA Today — No. 18
• Fox Sports — No. 19
• The Athletic — No. 24
• ESPN — No. 25