Navy is the favorite to win the American Conference in 2026, following a vote from the league’s media cohort.
The American Conference ceased publishing a preseason media poll leading up to the 2025 season, with conference commissioner Tim Pernetti referring to it as an “industry-wide trend”. Calling it a trend might be a generous spin on the reality: the Big 12 did away with its poll, and the American followed suit. As of now, a mix of conferences conduct polls, with others abstaining. It’s a choice; we at The Roost believe it’s the wrong one.
To that end, we gathered conference media and began issuing an American Conference Preseason Media Poll. While not officially endorsed by the league, it’s a collection of many of the same writers and outlets who have participated in the poll in the past. Here’s how the media voted this year:
Five different teams received first-place votes and seven were clustered together at the top half of the league standings in this year’s poll. Each of those teams received at least a third-place vote, something that was not true of any of the other programs picked eighth through 14th.
Only two teams, UAB and Charlotte, were consistently picked at the bottom of the league. Neither received a vote higher than ninth. Navy didn’t finish lower than sixth in any ballot, whereas Tulane received the widest spread of votes, finishing as high as first and as low as 11th.
In addition to the media votes, we opened the poll up to fans, too. Memphis was the favorite on that side, with Navy, South Florida, Tulane and East Carolina receiving some first-place votes, as well.
2026 American Conference QB Tiers
