The first College Football Playoff rankings of 2026 wasted no time stirring up the usual mess.
Once the committee dropped its opening bracket this week, the debate started immediately, and the loudest complaints centered on where Alabama, Notre Dame and Indiana landed in the initial poll.
Alabama’s spot in the top five drew the sharpest pushback. The Tide’s best win is a road victory at Kentucky, and they’re 2-2 against other CFP top 25 teams, with back-to-back losses to Georgia and Tennessee.
That Tennessee team, notably, checked in eight spots below Alabama. Six teams ranked behind the Tide also own better records against the committee’s ranked opponents, and the committee still pointed to Alabama’s win over Mississippi State as a key reason for placing it this high.
Notre Dame’s case cuts the other way. The Irish lost their only game against a ranked opponent, falling at BYU, and they don’t have a signature win or a schedule that jumps off the page.
But they’ve been dominant anyway, leading college football with a 27-point average margin of victory and looking like one of the most steady teams in the sport. Compared with their No. 4 spot in the AP poll, this ranking feels like the committee is hammering them for the quality of opponents they can’t control while lifting up several SEC teams with multiple losses.
Indiana’s placement also raises eyebrows. The reigning national champion has not beaten a single team currently ranked by the CFP selection committee, and the Hoosiers have also played a soft non-conference schedule, with no Power Four non-Big Ten opponent on it.
Their last three wins have all come by seven points or fewer, including overtime escapes against Michigan and Minnesota. Their only game against a higher-tier opponent was a loss to Ohio State, a team sitting eight spots ahead of them.
Ohio State, meanwhile, is technically inside the top dozen, but not inside the playoff field if it began today, because the Group of Six representative would take the No. 12 seed. The Buckeyes beat Indiana on the road, own the No. 2 strength of record and have the No. 10 strength of schedule in the country.
They also lost by one point to current No. 7 Texas, a loss that fits the classic “quality loss” label - the same kind of loss that apparently helped push Alabama into the top five.
Committee chairman Hunter Yurachek added another layer to the confusion when he said on live television that his group didn’t consider Ohio State’s head-to-head win over Indiana. That’s a stunning thing for a ranking committee to say.
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