2026 Week 3 College Football Picks: LSU vs. Ole Miss, SMU vs. Louisville Predictions
- College football Week 3 brings a packed slate of marquee matchups across the country, featuring high-stakes conference clashes like LSU against Ole Miss and SMU facing Louisville, according...
- According to the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Texas holds the number one spot with 56 first-place votes and a 2-0 record.
- Among the premier games on the docket, seventh-ranked LSU meets eighth-ranked Ole Miss in a battle.
College football Week 3 brings a packed slate of marquee matchups across the country, featuring high-stakes conference clashes like LSU against Ole Miss and SMU facing Louisville, according to ESPN and SportsLine. Fans tracking the early-season landscape can look to updated national rankings and computer projections to gauge how the top tier of the Football Bowl Subdivision is shaking out.
National Rankings and Championship Odds entering Week 3
According to the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Texas holds the number one spot with 56 first-place votes and a 2-0 record. Georgia sits right behind at number two with three first-place votes, followed by Notre Dame at number three, Indiana at number four, and Miami at number five, based on ESPN data. Ohio State occupies the sixth position at 1-1, while LSU stands at number seven with a 2-0 mark. Ole Miss ranks eighth at 2-0, Texas A&M sits ninth at 2-0, and Alabama rounds out the top ten at 2-0. In the AFCA Coaches Poll, Texas similarly claims the top spot with 42 first-place votes, ahead of Georgia with 15 first-place votes and Notre Dame with four, according to ESPN’s published figures. Indiana grabs ten first-place votes to sit at number four, while Miami holds two first-place votes at number five. Ohio State, LSU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Alabama complete the coaches’ top ten. Looking at national championship futures via ESPN odds, Ohio State leads the board at +530, followed by Texas at +620, Notre Dame at +650, Georgia at +680, and Miami at +770.
Key Conference Showdowns and Computer Projections
Among the premier games on the docket, seventh-ranked LSU meets eighth-ranked Ole Miss in a battle. Meanwhile, sixteenth-ranked SMU takes on twenty-third-ranked Louisville in a matchup carrying significant early-season poll implications. Additional ranked squads in action include number eleven BYU, number twelve USC, number thirteen Texas Tech, number fourteen Penn State, and number fifteen Tennessee. Further down the AP poll, Utah is ranked seventeenth, Iowa is eighteenth, Michigan is nineteenth, Missouri is twentieth, Oregon is twenty-first, Houston is twenty-second, Oklahoma is twenty-fourth, and Virginia is twenty-fifth.