College Football 26 defensive rankings: 10 best teams with formidable defenses in newest edition of EA Sports game ft. Alabama

There are many things fans are anticipating for CFB 26, including the release of the College Football 26 defensive rankings. Following the release of College Football 25, fans have been anticipating the release of the next iteration in the franchise.

EA College Football 25 was the first EA college football game released in over a decade. The most recent release before that was NCAA Football 14. Fortunately for fans, they did not need to wait another decade for the next release. College Football 26 will be released in July, allowing fans to familiarize themselves with some of the biggest stars in college football before the season starts in late August.

One of the most anticipated things for fans to find out is how teams are ranked in the game. Notably, teams are separated based on their offensive and defensive ranking. Those ratings are then balanced to give an overall rating to each team. Here is a look at the College Football 26 defensive rankings.

College Football 26 defensive rankings: Looking at the top 10 defensive teams in the game

The official release of College Football 26 is only a few weeks away. As a result, various details about the game have started to be released. Notably, the College Football 26 defensive rankings for the top teams were released. This was then reported by On3 on X on Friday. Here are the top 10 defensive teams in the game:

Alabama Crimson Tide | 96
Texas Longhorns | 94
Penn State Nittany Lions | 94
Georgia Bulldogs | 92
Ohio State Buckeyes | 92
Michigan Wolverines | 92
Oregon Ducks | 92
LSU Tigers | 92
Texas Tech Red Raiders | 92
Clemson Tigers | 90

While EA rankings are not always 100% accurate, these seem to be a fair assessment of some of the best defensive teams in college football heading into the 2025 season. While some fans might argue with the rankings, there is no doubt that these 10 teams should be among the elite defensive units in college football next season.

College Football 26 is set to be released on July 10 on PlayStation and Xbox. However, anyone who does not want to wait that long can purchase the MVP Bundle or the Deluxe Edition. Both versions come with additional features, as well as three days of early access, starting on July 7. The MVP Bundle is the most comprehensive package, including all bonus features.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Alexander O'Reilly