Preseason Rankings Countdown. 27 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #27 – Arizona

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

Arizona (high = 17, low = 38), take off your rainbow shades! Apologies for using a 56 year old song as an intro, and truth be told, there’s no reason for Wildcat fans not to hold onto those rainbow shades to kick off the new season. While the Jedd Fisch era finished with a 10-3 season that saw Arizona end the season (and their Pac-12 era) ranked #11 with a win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl, the Brent Brennan/Big XII era started off a little rough, to the point where there was some chatter about whether they should make a quick coaching change despite Brennan’s decent track record at San Jose State. But 2025 restored quite a bit of the faith in the faithful once Brennan replaced OC Dino Babers with Seth Doege, who returned Noah Fifita to the levels he’d seen in Fisch’s final season despite losing NFL first round draft pick Tetairoa McMillan and led the Wildcats to a 9-3 regular season. That faith restored, the Wildcats enter these preseason rankings as the #4 team in the preseason Big XII and just outside the top 25.

Roster Outlook

Brennan and the Wildcats enter 2026 with the 32nd most returning production, including a top 24 returning offense. That of course starts with QB Noah Fifita, who threw for 3,228 yards and 29 TDs (to only 6 INTs) in his resurgent 2025. Although lead RB Ismail Mahdi is out of eligibility (or is he – could he end up being in play for a return to the Wildcats based on that recent lawsuit?), backup Kedrick Reescano (396 yards, 9 TDs) is ready to step into the starting role. The Wildcats also lost their most productive WRs to graduation as well (Kris Hutson and Javin Whatley), who combined for 101 catches and 1,250 yards, but return a ton of depth, including projected starters Tre Spivey, Chris Hunter and Giovanni Richardson, who caught 71 passes for 1,150 yards and 11 TDs. Which helps explain why the Wildcats really didn’t do much in the portal (49th in the nation, 11th in the Big XII), bringing in only 8 P4 players, most of them on the defense (USC LB Matai Tagoa’i, Nebraska S Malcolm Hartzog, Oregon S Cam Chapa). Brennan did augment that with the #43 high school recruiting class according to 247, which was good for 7th in the Big XII.

Schedule and outlook

9/5 NORTHERN ARIZONA

9/12 at BYU

9/19 NORTHERN ILLINOIS

9/26 at Washington State

10/3 CINCINNATI

10/10 at West Virginia

10/17 BYE

10/24 IOWA STATE

10/31 at Texas Tech

11/6 TCU

11/14 UTAH

11/21 at Kansas State

11/28 ARIZONA STATE

Those rainbow shades are going to be put to a quick test with a trip to Provo in week 2. In fact, the Wildcats draw all 3 of the teams ranked higher than them in these preseason rankings, including a Halloween trip to Texas Tech and a home game against Utah the week after facing preseason #6 TCU. While there are enough games on here where the Wildcats will be favored, which should have them bowling in consecutive seasons for the first time in over a decade when the Rich Rod era was going strong, the schedule is tough enough that I suspect few neutral fans will be projecting Arizona to make the championship game. That being said, winning 10 games with this schedule should be enough to have them in the CFP regardless of whether they make the championship game or not. The better question would be a 10-3 conference runner-up and whether that would get them over the hump. It’s certainly all in play in 2026…