The Oregon Ducks put together a strong season in 2025, falling to eventual champion Indiana in the College Football Playoff and finishing the year with a 13-2 record and reaching the CFP semifinals.
Ducks starting quarterback Dante Moore threw for 3,565 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions while completing 71.8% of his passes.
His impressive redshirt sophomore campaign was enough to have him ranked as the second-best quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft class, only to withdraw from the draft in mid-January to return to Eugene for one final season.
Moore’s decision to return to school rather than enter the NFL draft left many analysts stunned, as he was widely expected to be selected No. 2 overall by the New York Jets.
On3's Clark Brooks ranked Moore as the No. 2 overall player in college football and the top quarterback entering 2026, calling him “pinpoint and precise” and a clear Heisman favorite. His NIL value sits at $3 million, the seventh-highest among all college football players.
The Texas Longhorns, meanwhile, enter the 2026 college football season as a national title contender after failing to make the CFP last season, albeit with expectations reset following a Citrus Bowl win and a 10–3 campaign.
Quarterback Arch Manning will return as the focal point of the Longhorns' offense, and he will be joined by a reloaded offense featuring transfer-portal addition Cam Coleman, Ryan Wingo, and Colin Simmons.
Manning threw for over 3,100 yards and totaled 36 touchdowns in 2025, and between the hype and recognizable surname, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach released his “Way-Too-Early 2026 All-America Team,” naming Manning as the starting quarterback while snubbing the more proven Moore.
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Schlabach acknowledged it was the “most difficult position” to narrow down, but he still opted for the less-proven signal caller.
“Quarterback was the most difficult position for which to pick just one player — along with Oregon's Dante Moore and Ohio State's Julian Sayin, LSU's Sam Leavitt, Miami's Darian Mensah and Texas Tech's Brendan Sorsby were just as worthy,” Schlabach wrote. “But give me the strong-armed passer with the famous last name who got better and better in Year 1 as a starter.”
Schlabach’s early All-America list placed Moore in the "also considered" list at the position, behind Manning and alongside Ohio State’s Julian Sayin.
NCAA's Stan Becton ranked Oregon the No. 2 team in his way-too-early top 25 rankings for the 2026 season while dropping Texas to the No. 4 spot.