The first simulated BCS standings of the 2026 college football season are in, and the old formula has a familiar heavyweight sitting on top.
Georgia owns the No. 1 spot in the BCSKnowHow projection with a .9858 score, while Notre Dame is close behind at .9425. Those two programs have clearly carved out their own tier, with Miami, Indiana, and Ohio State forming the next cluster in the top five.
Georgia’s rise makes perfect sense after its road win at Alabama, a result that also pushed the Bulldogs to No. 1 in the AP Top 25. The Bulldogs picked up 66 of 70 first-place votes and improved to 6-0. The victory was Georgia’s first at that venue since 2007, and it also knocked Texas out of the top spot after the Longhorns fell to Oklahoma, 27-24, in the Red River Rivalry.
Notre Dame has stayed right on Georgia’s tail after a 58-7 win over Stanford. The Irish are 6-0 and currently sit No. 2 in the AP poll as well, giving them matching momentum in both the human rankings and the BCS calculation.
Behind those two, Indiana’s 6-0 start continues to hold up well after a narrow win at Nebraska kept the Hoosiers unbeaten. Miami is 5-0 and Ohio State is 5-1, and together they help fill out a top-five group that feels separated from the rest of the field.
The BCS formula also keeps Alabama and Texas in the mix at Nos. 6 and 7, even with both teams having taken losses. That’s one of the old system’s signatures: it still gives real weight to the quality of opponents and the full body of work.
From there, BYU, Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Utah, and UCLA complete the top 12. UCLA made the biggest move after upsetting Oregon, jumping nine spots in the AP poll to No. 12, and the computers treated the Bruins kindly too.
Then comes the drop-off. Missouri checks in at .4668, and Iowa, Tennessee, and the rest of the field trail further back from there.
It’s all nostalgia at this point, of course. The College Football Playoff is built around a 12-team selection committee, not the old blend of polls and computer numbers. But the simulated standings still tell a clear story: Georgia and Notre Dame are standing apart from everyone else right now.
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