Judging by the chaos we have already seen across college football this season, it should come as no surprise that the first CFP rankings were just as unpredictable as the product on the field.
The only certainty entering Tuesday night’s rankings reveal was that Miami would sit atop the polls after a difficult outing against North Carolina.
Now, with a showdown against No. 8 Notre Dame looming this weekend, this is shaping up to be an elimination game for the No. 11 ranked Fighting Irish.
And let me make it clear for folks out there that are not following on a weekly basis: don’t freak out yet, just give it a few weeks.
But yes, you have my permission to start getting extremely nervous about the upcoming weekend, Notre Dame fans. It’s clear that the CFP committee is telling Marcus Freeman’s squad that they better beat No. 1 Miami on Saturday, or their chances of making the postseason will be hinging on others losing.
Don’t forget, this is the final season for a twelve-team playoff, with an expansion to 24-teams coming next year as ESPN and CFP finalize their new television agreement.
As for what happens within the SEC, well they came out smelling pretty nice after spending the entire offseason emphasizing strength of schedule metrics. Now, the conference has to be feeling fantastic on Wednesday morning, with Georgia sitting at No. 2 in the first polls.
Alabama coming in at No. 5 and Kentucky being ranked No. 6 gives them a pretty solid landing spot if either one of those teams were to catch another loss.
Realistically, if Kentucky beats No. 13 Tennessee this weekend in Knoxville, the Cats’ can afford an additional loss and still secure a playoff bid.
But, why in the world is Alabama ranked eight spots ahead of Tennessee if the Vols won the head-to-head matchup last month?
“The head to head matchup between Tennessee and Alabama is not going to come into play at this point becuase of where those two teams are viewed in the rankings process,” CFP chairman Hunter Yurachek explained.
No. 7 Texas is the only current team in the country with wins against three ranked teams, with a number of others including Kentucky, BYU, Alabama, Ole Miss and Ohio State being ones with two wins on the season so far.
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It was undefeated No. 8 UCLA that came in behind No. 4 Indiana, after the Hoosiers hung on for dear life against Minnesota this past weekend, as the committee came off as confusing given the Hoosiers strength of schedule.
We could be witnessing a year in which the Big Ten might only get two teams into the College Football Playoff, especially if No. 12 Ohio State cannot figure out life without Julian Sayin.
The Buckeyes, in my opinion, deserved to be ranked in this area. But the argument over head-to-head matchups was not even discussed by the committee due to Ohio State not being in the same pod of teams, according to chairman Hunter Yurachek.
“They didn’t look like the same Ohio State team this past weekend against Southern Cal”
And, it’s not hard to argue that the Buckeyes deserved to work for their spot. Obviously, they have time to prove to the world that they are a better football team than what we saw against USC, even though Hunter Yurachek pointed towards their defense more than offensive output.
Indiana has zero ranked wins this season, and have four of their five wins over power conference schools coming by one score.
What in the world has Indiana done to be ranked so high? And now, with USC being ranked 20th in the first poll, this could also give the Big Ten a spot at gaining a spot if the Trojans were to win out, while Indiana might not drop as far if they were to lose at home next week to Lincoln Riley’s squad.
The Big 12 could be in an even more interesting position.
No. 3 Utah is the highest-ranked team from the conference, but No. 9 BYU has a chance to change the entire playoff picture when the two teams meet in Saturday’s “Holy War.”
The Big 12 could potentially receive as many playoff bids as the Big Ten, although there is still a full month of the regular season remaining.
If the conference wants to place three teams in the College Football Playoff, BYU would likely need to win out, while No. 15 Texas Tech would need to finish the regular season undefeated. Utah would then most likely need to defeat BYU in the conference championship game.
That scenario would give BYU a legitimate argument for inclusion in the final CFP rankings, while Utah would receive the automatic bid and Texas Tech could make a strong case with only one loss.
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While in the past we could have countless arguments around the shenanigans that come with the CFP committee’s rankings, this season might actually call for a little grace.
Having to make these types of decisions, based off the pure madness we’ve seen over the past eight weeks, certainly made life difficult for committee members.
“We still believe as a committee there is going to be a significant amount of movement within the entire Top-25 ranking, and we’re looking forward to the task at hand,” CFP chairman Hunter Yurachek said after the rankings show.
“It will be a difficult task..This weekend is huge for college football”
Now, there is always something to nitpick, but this year has proven that any given Saturday could result in something wild transpiring within the Top-25.
Is their truly an elite team this season? We’re about to find out over the next month.
Now that we know that the field looks like as of November 3rd, we can asses what the first round will look like with on-campus games.
No. 12 Ohio State at No. 5 Alabama
No. 11 Notre Dame at No. 6 Kentucky
No. 10 Ole Miss at No. 7 Texas
No. 9 BYU at No. 8 UCLA
No. 1 Miami vs. No. 8/No. 9 winner
No. 2 Georgia vs. No. 7/No. 10 winner
No. 3 Utah vs. No. 6/No. 11 winner
No. 4 Indiana vs. No. 5/No. 12 winner
We are in for one crazy month of November, and there will be plenty of nervous folks across the country tuning in over the next four weeks.
One thing that we learned after the first CFP rankings of the 2026 season is that there will be plenty of chaotic moments coming, but Notre Dame had better win this weekend if they plan on spending their December preparing for the playoffs.