One of the best parts about college football is how unpredictable the sport can be. Teams can enter any given season expected to be both College Football Playoff and conference contenders, yet fall flat before the season is even over.
2026 is no exception. We’ve seen several disappointments across the sport so far this season, from Michigan to Texas A&M and others.
Here’s a look at the teams that have fallen well short of the lofty preseason expectations that surrounded them. Which squad has been the biggest disaster?
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8. Mississippi State Bulldogs
Mississippi State had dark horse CFP vibes early in the season, getting out to a 4-0 start with wins over Minnesota, South Carolina and a 31-24 win over Missouri. Kamario Taylor also burst onto the Heisman scene with huge games over his first four games.
But the season got off the rails as soon as Taylor suffered a turf toe injury against Missouri. He didn’t finish the Week 5 game against Alabama as a result, and played in just one other game all season before undergoing season-ending surgery on his toe. Since Taylor got hurt, Mississippi State is 0-5, with a 4-5 mark overall.
The good news is Taylor will be back in Starkville next season, as the school casually made him the highest-paid player in the country earlier this week. He signed a $7.5 million deal to return to the school in 2027.
7. Penn State Nittany Lions
A healthy chunk of people thought that Penn State would pick up where James Franklin left off with the hire of Matt Campbell from Iowa State. Campbell reached double-digit wins just once across his 10 seasons in Ames and brought many of his players across the country with him.
Things have not gone to plan, however.
Penn State is 5-4 on the season, including an 0-4 stretch starting in late September that featured losses to Wisconsin, Northwestern, USC and Michigan. The Nittany Lions should make a bowl game this year, but that’s a big drop from being considered a dark horse Big Ten contender at the start of the year.
6. Ole Miss Rebels
This was supposed to be another dream season for Trinidad Chambliss in Oxford, with Chambliss returning and Pete Golding fully settled into his new digs.
It looked to be trending that way, as the Rebels bested LSU and Lane Kiffin in his return to Oxford, 32-24, in Week 3. Ole Miss also got signature wins over Missouri and Auburn. But with three losses to Florida, Texas and a blowout loss to Georgia, Ole Miss is out of the playoff hunt.
Ole Miss can still reach 10 wins with a bowl victory. And reaching back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in school history is a massive accomplishment. But Chambliss not making the CFP this year is a major letdown considering the preseason hype.
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5. Oregon Ducks
Like Ohio State, Oregon also lost its starting quarterback, Dante Moore, to injury. But 2026 was supposed to be the year Dan Lanning’s team finally made a deep CFP run. Instead, the Ducks are 6-3 on the season, and Lanning fired offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer midseason.
Oregon has remaining games against Michigan, Michigan State and Washington, so the most likely scenario for the Ducks is making a respectable bowl game. If the Ducks fail to reach double-digit wins as expected, it’ll mark the first time the Oregon has done so since 2020 in Eugene. Dan Lanning and company still have an outside chance to shock the world and kick down the door to the CFP, but it would take some serious luck. An early-season injury to Dante Moore didn’t help the Ducks’ cause, but such is life in the Big Ten.
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4. Texas A&M Aggies
Texas A&M was a preseason Top-10 team, and the Aggies started the season with a 50-0 win over Missouri State. But the Aggies are 4-5 on the season, including a 1-5 mark in SEC play. TAMU’s lone SEC win came over Arkansas on Oct. 3, and the Razorbacks have the same conference record.
Aggie quarterback Marcel Reed has thrown the same number of touchdown passes as interceptions (8), and TAMU’s offense ranks 12th in the SEC in scoring offense, averaging just 26 points per game. Texas A&M plays Tennessee and Oklahoma over the next few weeks before getting rival Texas at home. But it seems unlikely the Aggies will even play well against the Longhorns, but rivalries can always be funky.
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3. Oklahoma Sooners
Oklahoma made it to the CFP last season, and with quarterback John Mateer returning, the Sooners were expected to finally break through in the SEC in 2026. But through mid-November, the Sooners haven’t even qualified for a bowl game yet at 5-4. Oklahoma has remaining games against Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Missouri, so the best-case scenario is that Oklahoma becomes bowl eligible after the Texas A&M game.
Head coach Brent Venables even moved on from offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle two weeks ago. The Sooners’ offense did improve after he elevated former Dallas Cowboys tight ends coach Jason Witten, leading the Sooners to a 23-7 road win over Florida.
We’ll see how well Mateer can finish out the season before going to the NFL, having thrown for 2,042 yards with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions so far this season.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes
The Buckeyes were a common preseason national title pick, as quarterback Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith were both returning. But the season isn’t even over, and Ohio State already has three losses. The latest was an embarrassing 41-28 home loss to Oregon that resulted in Ryan Day firing special teams coordinator Robby Discher. Yes, the Buckeyes did lose starting quarterback Julian Sayin to a shoulder injury, but his backup Luke Fahey has struggled to run the Buckeyes offense, even with the talent around him.
Ohio State has a good chance to finish 9-3 with remaining games against Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan, but it’s a far cry from being a national title contender.
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1. Michigan Wolverines
Michigan was expected to be a College Football Playoff and Big Ten title contender with the hire of Kyle Whittingham from Utah. He went 177-88 with the Utes, and won two Pac-12 titles there.
But through nine games, the Wolverines are 5-4 on the season, including a 15-6 loss to a 2-6 Michigan State team, which is a bigger deal to Wolverine fans than Whittingham may realize.
The loss resulted in the firing of Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck, but it could get ugly in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines have to play three straight ranked teams in Oregon, UCLA and Ohio State to end the season.
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