With just 50 days remaining until the start of the college football season, ESPN has released its latest Football Power Index (FPI) — including the network’s updated strength of schedule rankings for 2026.
ESPN defines strength of schedule as the “rank among all FBS teams of remaining schedule strength, from the perspective of an average FBS team.”
According to the preseason FPI, Arkansas enters 2026 with the nation’s toughest slate. The Razorbacks face home dates with Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Tulsa, and North Alabama, along with road trips to Texas A&M, Texas, Auburn, Vanderbilt, and Utah.
Oklahoma lands at No. 2 in the FPI strength of schedule rankings, followed by Texas at No. 3, Kentucky at No. 4, and Ole Miss at No. 5.
The SEC dominates the metric, placing nine teams in the Top 10 and 16 teams in the Top 25. The Big Ten follows with seven teams inside the Top 25, while the ACC places two.
The reigning national champion Indiana Hoosiers check in with the 33rd‑toughest schedule, and national runner‑up Miami sits at No. 45.
Below are the Top 25 toughest schedules for the 2026 season according to the ESPN FPI. For the full rankings, visit ESPN and view the “SOS” column. The “REM SOS” column is for remaining games, and will change as the season progresses.
1. Arkansas
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
4. Kentucky
5. Ole Miss
6. Mississippi State
7. Florida
8. Ohio State
9. Texas A&M
10. South Carolina
11. LSU
12. Missouri
13. Auburn
14. Tennessee
15. Alabama
16. Michigan
17. Northwestern
18. Vanderbilt
19. USC
20. Georgia
21. Nebraska
22. Florida State
23. Purdue
24. Boston College
25. Washington
View Comments (16)
Why look at "REM SOS" when I could look at "SOS"
They both show the same thing right now.
Let me see if I understand…ESPN, which runs the Playoff and has exclusive rights to SEC coverage, has announced a formula that places SEC Teams as 14 of the top 15. The hype for more SEC Teams in the Playoff has officially begun.
espn just ranks SEC teams high every year. what a joke .
And the SEC draws the most viewers and the most money and the NFL drafts more SEC players every year!
It's a conspiracy, right?
The SEC is out earned by more than $350 million by the Big Ten Conference.
An 30 second ad for an SEC game can cost advertisers as much as $300,000.
The same ad on a Big Ten game is around $110,000.
The SEC actually wins the ratings battle, too. So more people actually watch SEC football. In the Big Ten people watch Ohio State.
Again, the Big Ten Conterence generates more athletic revenue than the SEC.
Let SEC! SEC! SEC! brag all he wants.
Come play in the SEC and find out why they're the toughest.
They don't understand, it's an every week grind, the big ten is top heavy so unless you're playing ohio st, oregon, Indy, mich or usc ehh, then you have a cakewalk, every week in the sec, Caleb Downs said it, and the reason the big ten looks great in the playoffs is because they're fresh from playing the weakest non conference schedules whereas in the sec we are required to play a power 4 non conference game, there is a reason more sec players are drafted every year, we are a super deep conference and at the end of the year we are completely beat up and now adding that 9th game is gna really cause chaos
When will people come back to reality and realize that the SEC is NOT that dominate conference anymore. That title without a doubt, goes to the BIG10. But the BIG downside for both the SEC and BIG10 is that just about every season they play a HS JV football team (FCS) and a bottom of the barrel HS Varsity team (non power 4 FBS) every season. While both conferences play about 8 conference games a season, there is nothing impressive about playing teams like Mercer and Kent State every single season.
The sec is required to play a power 4 team in non conference and the big 10 does not, and we both now play 9 conference games that will undoubtedly hurt the sec more than the big 10 because sec is just a deeper conference from top to bottom, the title drought is easy to explain, when you play a jv mon conference schedules like Indy, it makes you a fresher team later in the year, I'm not taking anything away from the big 10 because those titles were legit and Indy was definitely the best team last year and ohio st the year before, debatable about Michigan but my point is that the sec is beat up more later in the season because every team possesses the ability to knock you off, even candy gets 5* quarterbacks, so yes partially correct but imo the sec is a deeper conference
ESPN cracks me up. However, these stats do make sense because they had inflated their schedules when they only played 8 conference games. Now that they play 9, you are going to see these teams loses more games and then drop back to reality next year.
I mean the SEC is a gauntlet but nine of the top ten seems much.
Funny how the SEC is a lot less dominate now that EVERYONE can play their players! Haven't won a NC in 3 years now!