2026 QB rankings: Elite class ready to take over college football

A legacy coming into his own at Texas. A new transfer set to take the reins at Indiana . Two surprising returnees at Oregon and Mississippi .

A set-to-explode second-year starter at Notre Dame. An elite quarterback class is poised to dominate and define the 2026 college football season. In the Longhorns ’ Arch Manning , the Ducks ’ Dante Moore, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin and more, these quarterbacks resemble on paper one of the best groups in recent Bowl Subdivision history.

TOO-EARLY TOP 25: New No. 1 leads college football after spring practice POST-SPRING POWER RANKINGS: Big Ten | SEC | Big 12 | ACC Unsurprisingly, the list of this year’s top passers features some of the best teams in the FBS, including four of the top five and seven of the top nine teams in USA TODAY Sports’ too-early Top 25 . After the Hoosiers’ Fernando Mendoza took home the honors last year, another Big Ten starter leads the preseason Heisman Trophy debate and tops our post-spring list of college football’s top quarterbacks: 1.

Julian Sayin, Ohio State Sayin isn’t viewed on the quite same level as an NFL prospect as Manning and Moore; while those two are expected to top next year’s draft , Sayin is projected to be taken No. 22 overall in USA TODAY Sports’ early look at the 2027 class. But he has the inside track for the Heisman because of his supporting cast, which includes superstar receiver Jeremiah Smith and running back Bo Jackson.