Notre Dame fans might still be smarting over the outcome of the 2025 College Football Playoff title game, but it’s time to look to 2026. At least that’s how ESPN sees it.
Very quickly after the Irish’s loss to Ohio State concluded, Mark Schlabach presented his 2025 Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings and placed the Irish fourth. Now, Bill Connelly has presented his initial projections for the 2026 College Football Playoff, something he safely could do given the format will be unchanged from 2025.
The Irish are slotted as the seventh seed and host of a first-round game, but the bigger story in this scenario is their first opponent would be LSU. What’s more, this projection has the Irish beating the Tigers in a game that Brian Kelly surely never would live down.
Alas, this projection also has Penn State getting revenge on the Irish in the Rose Bowl en route to winning the national title. At least there’s no shame in losing to the last team standing:
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Welcome to college football, where predictions never take time off.
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