College GameDay wasted no time getting to the big question on Saturday: who wins it all in 2026?
The show was in Baton Rouge for the first College GameDay of the college football season, setting the table for Clemson-LSU and the rest of Week 1. But near the end of the broadcast, the crew shifted from opening-week buzz to the sport’s biggest prize and laid out their early College Football Playoff National Championship picks.
Desmond Howard went with Texas, calling for the Longhorns to beat Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Nick Saban also put Texas on the title-game stage, but he had a different finish in mind. In his version, Texas falls to Miami.
Pat McAfee’s pick went in a different direction entirely. He selected Indiana and Ole Miss to meet for the national title, with Indiana going back-to-back.
Then Kirk Herbstreit closed out the panel’s choices by picking Notre Dame over Indiana for the championship.
Celebrity guest picker Lainey Wilson also got in on the predictions, choosing LSU to beat Miami in the title game.
Those selections put a spotlight on a group of teams already viewed as serious contenders, even if the season has barely started. Now the only thing left is to see which, if any, of these calls survives the grind of the months ahead.
College GameDay heads to Austin, Texas, next Saturday for the Week 2 matchup between Ohio State and Texas. After that, the show moves to Oxford, Mississippi, for Week 3 and the LSU-Ole Miss game.
In Other News...
Pete Goldings Path To This Ole Miss Job Was Anything But Typical
Pete Goldings rise to the top job at Ole Miss was not the standard assistant-to-head-coach handoff. After Lane Kiffin departed for LSU, Golding was elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach and rewarded with a five-year, $35 million contract, a move that gives the program continuity at a moment when it could have easily unraveled. His path has included stops at Alabama and UTSA, but he is now the latest coach asked to keep the Rebels from losing momentum after a season that already carried serious postseason weight.
What makes Goldings case especially unusual is how much of his value came from what happened in 2025, when he served as Ole Misss interim coach and helped guide the Rebels to two College Football Playoff wins. The contract reflects that leap in trust, with bonuses and a buyout clause built in, but the bigger question is how he translates an interim surge into something more durable. Ole Miss didnt just need a caretaker, and now Golding gets the challenge of proving this path, however unconventional, can still lead to a lasting run. [Read more 🡒]
Jeff Brohm Still Carries The Purdue Upset Reputation Into Another Test
Jeff Brohm has spent enough time in the sport to know that rankings alone do not settle much, and his track record against elite teams has become part of the conversation every time one of his squads draws a heavyweight. Across 12 seasons as a head coach, he has gone 5-8 against top-10 opponents, with most of that damage coming in the more recent stretch since 2018, when his teams have proven capable of springing the kind of surprises that linger.
That reputation is what makes the 2026 season opener at No. 10 Mississippi worth watching closely. Brohm already owns notable victories over No. 2 Ohio State in 2018 and No. 2 Miami in 2025, and even his Louisville run against top-10 foes produced a split. For Ole Miss, the meeting offers an early test against a coach who has built a rsum on making highly ranked teams uncomfortable. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Gets Its First Real Test In A Spotlight Opener
Ole Miss will step into the national spotlight to open the season against Louisville on Sept. 6, with the matchup set for Nissan Stadium in Nashville. For a Rebels team that will spend the offseason building toward bigger goals, this is the kind of opening night that gives everyone an immediate read on where things stand, and it comes with the added lift of a neutral-site stage and a crowd that should feel plenty invested.
The broadcast setup matches the occasion, too, with the game landing on ABC and streaming available through Fubo and the ESPN app. For fans watching from home, it will be one of those early-season tests that feels bigger than a normal opener, and the buildup will only grow as kickoff approaches and the attention around the Rebels starts to build. [Read more 🡒]