The college football season is just around the corner. The 2026/27 season will see the third edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff. The Big 10 has won three straight national titles, and the SEC is hungry for vengeance. Could another conference (or non-conference) produce a national champion?
Here is a breakdown of my College Football Playoff bracket prediction and National Championship best bets.
2026 Odds to Win the National Championship
College Football Playoff Prediction
Here is my predicted College Football Playoff bracket:
The Georgia Bulldogs are my pick to take the top seed in the SEC. I expect them to win the SEC with at most one regular season loss. The Oregon Ducks come in as the No. 2 seed. My prediction is for Oregon to lose to Ohio State in Columbus in the regular season, but get its revenge over the Buckeyes in the Big 10 title game, slotting them as the No. 2 seed and Ohio State as the No. 4 seed. In between them, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will take the No. 3 seed after an undefeated regular season.
Miami and Texas Tech are my picks to win the ACC and Big 12, giving them the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds in the CFP. My fifth and final automatic bid is going to Boise State. The Broncos are my pick to win the first championship of the new Pac-12 and finish with a strong enough resume to get that fifth automatic bid.
That makes five automatic bids, Notre Dame and Ohio State as the seven easy picks for my bracket. When it comes down to the five other spots, I can only see them coming from the Big 10 and the SEC. The Big 12 and ACC both seem like one-bid leagues this season. Out of the SEC, Texas should make the College Football Playoff pretty comfortably with Arch Manning leading the way.
LSU and Alabama are my other two picks out of the SEC. LSU has a favorable schedule, getting Texas, Texas A&M and Alabama all at home. They also avoid Georgia this season. Alabama should make the CFP for the second straight year under Kalen DeBoer. Other than that road trip to Death Valley, they get all of their other tough games at home.
Out of the Big 10, I am backing defending champions Indiana and USC to get the other two spots in the College Football Playoff. Indiana might not be able to replicate last year’s magic, but Curt Cignetti has built a proven winner and they retained enough talent to be competitive again. Not to mention hitting the transfer portal hard, including bringing in Josh Hoover at quarterback. This could finally be the year that Lincoln Riley gets to the CFP as well. Jayden Maiava should be elite and the defense is improved enough to beat the rest of the second-tier Big 10 teams.
First Round
Miami should take care of Boise State handily in that first-round matchup. Darian Mensah and the Hurricanes will get to host Boise State, who will have to travel across the country. Miami’s athletes will just be too good for Boise State.
LSU can go into Lubbock and pull off the upset. Texas Tech should cruise through an easy Big 12 schedule, but LSU has a real offense that could put the pressure on Texas Tech. This is exactly how things played out for the Red Raiders last year and it could be déjà vu in Lubbock.
Texas and USC will face off in a rematch of the 2006 Rose Bowl, one of the greatest games in the history of the sport. It might not live up to the Vince Young vs. Matt Leinart hype levels, but the result should be the same, with Texas getting the win.
Alabama and Indiana will face off in the College Football Playoff for the second straight year. After the Hoosiers embarrassed Alabama last season, the Crimson Tide should get their revenge this time around with the home crowd at their backs.
Quarterfinals
Georgia will get to take on Alabama in a regular-season (and potentially SEC title game) rematch. This will either be the second or third matchup between the two teams this season, making for a great matchup. Just like how I predict it going in the regular season, Georgia should have too much talent on defense and get the win over the Crimson Tide.
Miami and Ohio State will be the second matchup of this CFP that is a rematch from last year’s CFP. Just like with Alabama against Indiana, the result will flip this time around. After Miami pulled off the upset over the Buckeyes in last year’s quarterfinals, Julian Sayin and Ryan Day will get their revenge here.
Oregon will face off against Texas in an incredible quarterfinal matchup. Dan Lanning and Steve Sarkisian used to go head-to-head as coordinators when Lanning was running the defense at Georgia and Sarkisian was running the offense at Alabama. Now, they will face off as head coaches and Lanning should get his team the win in a great battle.
LSU will take on Notre Dame in the final quarterfinals. The Notre Dame defense should be too much and win the day. Lane Kiffin will exit the College Football Playoff here in his first season at LSU, giving him something to build on going forward.
Semifinals
Georgia vs. Ohio State and Oregon vs. Notre Dame would make for two epic semifinal matchups. Ultimately, Georgia would be my pick over Ohio State. The Georgia defense gets a slight edge for me in that matchup, while the Ohio State offense gets a slight edge over the Georgia offense. It should be an incredible game that comes down to the narrowest of margins, which usually means coaching will decide that day. If that’s the case, give me Kirby Smart over Ryan Day 10 times out of 10.
Oregon and Notre Dame have two of the best defenses in the nation and two elite coaching staffs. However, the slight edge goes to Oregon when it comes to the offense. Dante Moore is the real deal and he has arguably the best receiving corps in the nation to work with. Lanning should be able to get his team to the national title game from here.
Championship Game
Kirby Smart finally broke through and won his first national championship in 2021. In that national title game, he finally conquered his demons and beat his former boss, Nick Saban, and Alabama. Sometimes the apprentice needs to beat the master to finally reach the mountaintop. The same could be the case for Dan Lanning here. Lanning learned under Kirby Smart at Georgia for years before taking the Oregon job. It would be a storybook ending for him to beat his old mentor to finally get his first national championship at Oregon. Dante Moore returned with a mission to win a national title, and he’s going to get it.
Best National Championship Futures
Oregon to win the National Championship (+750)
Dan Lanning has been so close to the mountaintop at Oregon. In his second season at Oregon, he only lost to Washington, once in the regular season and once in the Pac-12 Championship Game. That cost him a spot in the four-team College Football Playoff, where Washington went on to the national title game. In Lanning’s third season at Oregon, the Ducks went undefeated in the regular season and secured the No. 1 seed in the CFP, but lost to Ohio State, the eventual national champions. Last year, in Lanning’s fourth season with the Ducks, he only lost to Indiana. The eventual national champions beat Oregon in the regular season once and again in the CFP semifinals.
So, in each of the past three seasons, Dan Lanning’s Ducks have only lost to one team. Two of those teams went on to win national titles and the other made the national title game. Lanning’s teams have not been far away and now he has arguably his most talented team ever. Dante Moore will be one of the best quarterbacks in the country and he has one of the best receiving groups in the country to throw to. The defense is loaded and Lanning is an amazing defensive coach. This could finally be his year to win the big one.
Alabama to win the National Championship (+2500)
The only team that presents real value on the board to win the national title. I concur with the oddsmakers that the best teams in the country are Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame and Ohio State, four of the top-five teams on the odds board. Almost every team further down the odds board is there for a reason; they just don’t quite have the pieces to win a national title. The lone exception to that rule is Alabama.
Kalen DeBoer is a remarkable coach and made the national title game with Washington in 2023. After a tough first season at Alabama, he took a big step forward last season by getting to the College Football Playoff and winning a playoff game. However, his team stood no chance against Indiana. While DeBoer’s team might run into another buzzsaw in the postseason, Georgia, by my prediction, they have the ceiling to make a run all the way to the title game.
Alabama still has an ongoing quarterback battle between Keelon Russell and Austin Mack. Russell has the higher ceiling and is my pick to win the job, but both quarterbacks are very capable. If Russell gets the job and hits his incredibly high ceiling right away, this offense could be incredibly dangerous. It’s not a peak Nick Saban Alabama team talent-wise, but it’s still one of the most gifted groups in the country top to bottom. At 25/1, Alabama is the only team outside that top four that presents real value to win the national title this season.
