Saturday’s chaos around college football did Nebraska no harm. When five of the top seven teams all went down, the playoff picture got messy in a hurry, and that kind of mess always creates at least a sliver of hope for teams sitting outside the usual group of contenders.
So the question turns to the Huskers: can a 5-2 Nebraska team actually play its way into the College Football Playoff, even if the season ends with three losses?
It’s not a fantasy built on wishful thinking alone. Since the expanded CFP arrived in 2024, two three-loss teams have gotten in - Clemson and Alabama, programs that usually have an easier time sneaking through the cracks. Nebraska, meanwhile, still has five games left and a very real hurdle after back-to-back heartbreaking losses to Indiana and Oregon.
The road from here is straightforward on paper and brutal in practice. Nebraska is idle this week, then faces Washington (4-3), Illinois (3-3), Rutgers (2-4), Ohio State (6-1) and Iowa (5-1). The expectation is that the Huskers would be favored against Washington, Illinois and Rutgers, while carrying underdog status against Ohio State and Iowa.
If Nebraska wants a realistic shot, the math is unforgiving. A perfect finish would give the Huskers a 90 percent chance of reaching the CFP, according to projections from The Athletic.
A 4-1 finish, which would mean a third loss, drops those odds all the way to 11 percent. At 3-2, the number falls below 1 percent.
That makes the margin for error obvious: Nebraska probably has to go 5-0.
And while that is a tall order, it is not impossible. The Huskers were in the fight for three quarters in both losses, and that at least gives them something to build on as they try to steady themselves after a rough two weeks.
The larger problem is the conference around them. The Big Ten is loaded with teams still in the mix.
UCLA is unbeaten, five teams have one loss and four more have two losses. That total will shrink because of head-to-head matchups, but it still points to a crowded race for what could amount to three or four CFP spots.
Current projections have Ohio State, Indiana and UCLA in the field.
The league’s recent playoff track record only sharpens the picture. The Big Ten won the last three national championships, then placed four teams in the CFP in 2024 and three more in 2025.
The SEC is packed as well. Eleven of its 16 teams have two losses or fewer, and four league teams are projected for the playoff: Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Kentucky. The SEC sent three teams in 2024 and five in 2025.
For Nebraska, the remaining schedule offers both opportunity and danger in equal measure. The Oct. 31 game against Washington looks more important by the week, and it could end up shaping not just this season but the outlook for 2026 as well.
A win would push the Huskers to 6-2. A loss would send them to 5-3, extend the skid to three straight defeats and make a third consecutive seven-win season feel much more likely.
The Nov. 6 trip to Illinois lines up as a game Nebraska should be able to win, especially with the Illini expected to be without injured starting quarterback Katin Houser. Still, it comes on a Friday night on the road, and that alone is enough to remind Husker fans of last year’s Friday-night disaster in Minneapolis against the Gophers.
Rutgers waits on Nov. 14, and the Scarlet Knights have already shown they can hang around, giving USC a battle into the fourth quarter. They can move the ball, but Nebraska is supposed to have enough offense and defensive talent to handle that one.
Then comes Nov. 21 against Ohio State. The Buckeyes are No. 3 in the AP Top 25 Poll, though they are dealing with a major setback: starting quarterback Julian Sayin is out for the season.
Backup Luke Fahey, a true freshman, will be worth watching when Ohio State visits USC on Halloween night. If Nebraska could beat Ohio State anyway, even with that situation, it would give the Huskers a serious boost and finally snap the ugly run of 0-31 against ranked teams since October 2016.
The regular season wraps Nov. 27 at Iowa, and even that game has the feel of something bigger if Nebraska is still in the playoff conversation. The Hawkeyes have beaten the Huskers 10 of the last 11 times, including last year’s 40-16 rout at Memorial Stadium. Iowa’s only loss this season came against a full-strength Ohio State team.
The first CFP rankings come out Nov. 3, and Nebraska could be sitting at 6-2 and still alive in the conversation by then. Or the Huskers could already be looking at 5-3 and checking the non-CFP bowl picture instead.
In Other News...
Anthony Colandrea Just Became A Huge Nebraska Offseason Priority
Anthony Colandrea has quickly moved to the center of Nebraskas offseason planning, with Matt Rhule acknowledging the realities of a transfer market that never really sleeps. The chatter around SEC teams reaching out about Colandrea for 2027 only adds to the urgency, but from Nebraskas side, the focus is on keeping a quarterback who has already given the program steady production and shown enough promise to matter well beyond this season.
The bigger question now is how hard Nebraska is willing to push to keep him in Lincoln for a potential fifth year of eligibility. Reports point to ongoing discussions around a substantial NIL package, which tells you all you need to know about how valuable Colandrea has become to the Huskers, even with some recent bumps in the road. For a team trying to stabilize the position and build around it, this has become one of the most important retention battles of the offseason. [Read more 🡒]
Fred Hoiberg Just Gave Nebraska Fans A Surprising NIL Reality
CBS Sports latest deep dive into college basketball spending painted a pretty clear picture of where Nebraska stands in the NIL arms race, and it was a reminder that Fred Hoiberg has been trying to do a lot with less. The report sorted high-major programs into seven spending tiers for the 2026-27 season and pointed to coaches such as Matt Painter, Nate Oats, TJ Otzelberger and Hoiberg as examples of leaders who have squeezed real value out of limited resources.
For Nebraska fans, that is both encouraging and a little sobering. It suggests the Cornhuskers are not operating in the same financial neighborhood as some of the sports biggest spenders, even as Hoiberg has kept the program competitive enough to draw national attention in conversations about efficiency and overachievement. The larger question now is how long Nebraska can keep winning that kind of battle if the spending gap keeps shaping the landscape. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Has A Huge Chance To Make A Real Big Ten Statement
Nebraskas 5-2 start has left it with something bigger than momentum to protect in the weeks ahead. After absorbing two losses, the Cornhuskers now enter a stretch against Washington, Illinois, and Rutgers that offers a real chance to steady the season and build a better case in the Big Ten race.
Those three games also come with the kind of variables that can swing a fall stretch either way, from player health to the conditions on game day. If Nebraska handles the slate well, it could be sitting at 8-2 and turning a solid start into something far more meaningful heading into the final run. [Read more 🡒]