Week 1 didn’t exactly clear the fog around the 2026 College Football Playoff picture, but it did sharpen a few things. Notre Dame still sits at No.
1, Georgia and Ohio State remain in the thick of the race, and Miami and LSU made strong early statements. The biggest jolt, though, comes from the Group of Six slot, where Western Michigan crashes the field after a wild showing against Michigan.
That chaos-heavy opening weekend didn’t produce a ton of marquee matchups, but the few that mattered gave us enough to adjust the board. Ole Miss picked up the only top-25 win of the week, SMU survived a messy trip to Florida State, and Texas Tech didn’t do enough in its opener to move the needle much either way. With that in mind, here’s how the bracket looks heading into Week 2.
Notre Dame stays at No. 1 after handling Wisconsin 41-13 despite a shaky first half. The Irish leaned on defense early, including a 55-yard interception return for a touchdown, and eventually let the offense settle in.
The schedule stays soft for a while, with No. 15 BYU not coming until Oct.
Georgia remains No. 2 and the projected SEC champion after a 63-3 rout of Tennessee State. Kirby Smart used five quarterbacks in the game, and Gunner Stockton made the most of his snaps, completing 15 of 16 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns.
Miami moves up to No. 3 and is still projected to win the ACC after rolling past Stanford 45-6. Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney connected for 234 yards and three touchdowns, and Mensah’s five-touchdown debut only added to the buzz around a Hurricanes team that looks dangerous right away.
Ohio State drops to No. 4 but stays projected as the Big Ten champ after a 56-3 win over Ball State. Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith continued to look like a problem for defenses, combining for 151 yards and two touchdowns. Sayin now gets a far tougher test in Week 2 against Texas, but the early signs under first-year offensive coordinator Arthur Smith are encouraging.
Texas holds at No. 5 after a 59-7 win over Texas State, though the real measuring stick arrives this weekend against Ohio State. Arch Manning looked sharper than he did in last year’s loss to the Buckeyes, and Texas spent heavily this offseason to strengthen the offensive line and add more help in Cam Coleman and Hollywood Smothers. The answer on whether it all pays off comes Saturday night.
Ole Miss climbs to No. 6 after the Rebels outlasted Louisville 41-38 in the only top-25 game of the opening weekend. Trinidad Chambliss looked every bit like a Heisman Trophy contender in the second half, but the defense also raised concerns with busted coverages that turned into touchdowns. With LSU coming soon, that side of the ball matters.
Indiana stays at No. 7 after a 52-16 win over North Texas. Josh Hoover made a strong debut, throwing four touchdown passes, including one on his first throw. The run game, though, did very little, with BC transfer Turbo Richard leading the team with 58 yards.
Oregon sits at No. 8, unchanged from the preseason projection.
LSU jumps to No. 9 after the most convincing performance of the week, a 51-10 win over Clemson. The Tigers looked sharp on both sides of the ball, though the question remains whether LSU is that good or Clemson is that bad. Either way, the road trip to Ole Miss in Week 3 now looms large.
Texas Tech stays in the projected Big 12 title spot at No. 10 after a 33-10 win over Abilene Christian. There wasn’t much to learn from that one, and the bigger test comes Sept. 19 against Houston.
SMU enters the field at No. 11 after surviving a long power outage delay and four turnovers in a 27-24 win over Florida State. Rhett Lashlee has plenty to clean up, but the Mustangs may also benefit from an ACC that looks stronger than expected and could have a real case for more than one playoff team.
The new Group of Six entrant is Western Michigan at No. 12, despite a loss to Michigan. The Broncos were at the center of one of the weekend’s wildest finishes, and even if the official result doesn’t match the way this projection views it, Western Michigan gets the nod as the most impressive Group of Six team so far.
The first-round matchups would be Western Michigan at Texas, SMU at Ole Miss, Texas Tech at Indiana, and LSU at Oregon. In the quarterfinals, Notre Dame would meet the LSU-Oregon winner, Georgia would get the Texas Tech-Indiana winner, Miami would face the SMU-Ole Miss winner, and Ohio State would draw the Western Michigan-Texas winner.
The semifinal sites are set for Miami on Jan. 14 and New Orleans on Jan. 15, with the championship game scheduled for Jan. 25 in Las Vegas.
In Other News...
SMU Just Took A Shot At Miami's QB Debate
Rhett Lashlee has no interest in hiding how he feels about the quarterback conversation shaping up in the ACC. In an ESPN interview, the SMU coach put Kevin Jennings in the same breath as Miamis Darian Mensah, using Jennings yardage against a stronger opponent to frame his own signal-caller as one of the leagues top answers under center.
For Miami, though, the comparison comes with a little extra edge because Mensahs recent outing against Stanford was cleaner, with a high completion rate, multiple touchdown throws and no turnovers, while Jennings was working through a closer win over Florida State that included more interceptions and a lower quarterback rating. The two quarterbacks are still firmly in the mix as the ACC Championship race takes shape, even if their teams wont cross paths in the regular season. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Fans Have One Fair Question About This AP Poll Snub
Miamis rise in the AP Top 25 has been steady enough that a sixth-place vote one week and no mention at all the next stands out immediately. Brian Fonseca, one of the polls voters, left the Hurricanes off his ballot after ranking them sixth the previous week, even though Miami still checked in at No. 7 overall.
The omission has only added to the intrigue because Miamis point total would have moved ahead of Oregons if Fonseca had included the Hurricanes, which could have shifted the order in the poll. Fonseca has not offered an explanation, so the most obvious reading is that it was simply an oversight, but until theres clarification, it leaves Miami fans with a fair question about how one ballot changed the picture. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Commit A'mir Sears Is Fueling A Huge Recruiting Push
Amir Sears has already become one of the biggest early drivers of Miamis 2027 recruiting buzz. The five-star commit has played well to open the high school season, even as his team took a loss to St. Thomas Aquinas, and his presence has helped give the Hurricanes a class that is drawing national attention. He is part of a group that already includes quarterback CJ Cypher, another notable pledge whose long-term path remains a talking point.
For Miami, the bigger picture is how much momentum these early commitments can create as the cycle keeps moving. The Hurricanes are watching a highly regarded class take shape, and the interest around Sears only adds to the sense that this group could keep climbing if the right pieces stay in place. Upcoming games will give him more chances to build on his start, while the recruiting side of the story continues to carry as much intrigue as anything happening on the field. [Read more 🡒]