Heading into the 2026 college football season, the Washington Huskies are becoming a mainstay in most top 25 rankings.
That includes ESPN's Bill Connelly's SP+ metric, which has the Huskies ranked as the No. 18 team in the nation ahead of Jedd Fisch's third season at the helm as he looks to gain a stronger footing in the Big Ten after going 9-4, including a win in the LA Bowl, in 2025.
"SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency," Connelly wrote in his definition of the metric. "It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year."
* It starts with Buckeyes & Ducks
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) August 13, 2026
* Underrated: Texas Tech
* Overrated: The rest of the B12, apparently
* Brand new day for Okla St, Va Tech & UCLA 😃
* Brand new day for N Texas & UConn ☹️
* Notre Dame: ret prod national champs 😤
2026 SP+ PROJECTIONS: https://t.co/tt7szdD2TH
That metric views the Huskies rather favorably, ranking them with the No. 17 defense and No. 18 offense in the nation. Washington is also sitting as the No. 7 team in the Big Ten per SP+, behind No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Oregon, No. 5 Indiana, No. 12 USC, No. 15 Michigan, and No. 17 Penn State.
Heading into 2026, one of the biggest goals for Fisch's team will be winning big games. Through his first two seasons, the head coach is 2-5 against ranked opponents, and with five teams ranked in the AP top 25 (and SP+, including No. 22 Iowa) on the schedule, Washington has a golden opportunity to assert itself against some of the top teams in the conference.
The Huskies are slated to square off with the Trojans in Los Angeles on October 3, before returning home to face the Hawkeyes on October 9. Then, the Nittany Lions come to Seattle on November 7, before the defending national champion Hoosiers make the trip west on November 21, and the Huskies end the season in Eugene against their arch-rival Ducks on November 28.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: ESPN's SP+ ranks Washington football inside top 20 ahead of 2026
