CBS Sports analyst Brad Crawford sees Notre Dame making a deep run in the 2026 College Football Playoff, and he has the Fighting Irish all the way in the national title game against Oregon.
Crawford’s bracket starts with Miami at No. 1, followed by Texas, Oregon and Notre Dame. Behind them, he slotted Georgia, Indiana, Texas Tech, Ohio State, LSU, SMU, Ole Miss and UNLV into the 12-team field. He projected Miami to win the ACC, Texas the SEC, Oregon the Big Ten and Texas Tech the Big 12.
Even with Notre Dame taking a loss to Miami, Crawford still gave the Irish a first-round bye. He also included SMU as an at-large team, which is notable because the Mustangs are Notre Dame’s final home opponent of the regular season.
The opening round of Crawford’s bracket stayed pretty straightforward. He picked Ohio State over LSU, Georgia over UNLV, Indiana over Ole Miss and Texas Tech over SMU. The quarterfinals followed the same pattern, with Miami beating Ohio State, Notre Dame knocking off Georgia, Oregon handling Indiana and Texas getting past Texas Tech.
The surprises came in the semifinal round. Crawford has Notre Dame avenging its regular-season loss by beating top-seeded Miami, while Oregon takes down Texas to set up a Notre Dame-Oregon championship game in Las Vegas. He then has the Ducks winning it all.
"They have one of the best rosters in college football," Crawford explained. "They have an elite secondary, great offensive line and one of the highest paid quarterbacks.
I think Dante Moore is going to be the first quarterback off the board in 2027. Dan Lanning, after a couple of mishaps against Indiana and Ohio State, gets it done, runs through the gauntlet and beats Notre Dame for Oregon's first national championship."
Notre Dame’s path is still just a projection, of course, but Crawford’s bracket underscores how open the 2026 race looks on paper. With Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas, Ohio State, Miami, Indiana and Georgia all in the mix, the season already feels loaded with possible contenders before a snap has been played.
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The latest reminder that college footballs uniform real estate is getting more expensive came out of Columbus, where Ohio State unveiled a new patch sponsorship that will bring in roughly $17 million a year and fold in extra benefits for its athletes, including NIL opportunities and financial literacy resources. It is the kind of deal that would have seemed far-fetched not long ago, but it fits a growing pattern across Division I, where schools are increasingly turning jerseys into another revenue stream.
For Notre Dame, the concern is less about what happened elsewhere than about how long it can stay above the fray. The Irish have long sold themselves as different, with tradition and aesthetics carrying real weight in the programs identity, yet the pressure to keep pace with the sports financial arms race only keeps building. Every new patch agreement around the country makes the same question harder to avoid: how long can Notre Dame resist before the marketplace starts asking for its own compromise? [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Just Took A Major Step That Will Test Tradition
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The bigger significance may be what the deal is designed to support. Notre Dame says the partnership will help power its 4 For Forever program, with money aimed at scholarships, financial education and career development, a reminder that the modern college sports marketplace is now shaping everything from branding to postgraduation preparation. For a program that has always guarded its traditions closely, the next question is how far it is willing to go in adapting to this new era. [Read more 🡒]