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College Football Playoff Rankings reaction: Notre Dame among underrated teams slighted, SEC's efforts succeed

The College Football Playoff’s first Top 25 rankings of the 2026 season have already sparked debate, with the SEC receiving significant favoritism through a newly introduced strength-of-conference metric. Notre Dame, despite its strong season, was left with no margin for error in the rankings, while two-loss Alabama sits unusually high in the committee’s projections.

The rankings also echo last year’s controversial decisions, where head-to-head results were seemingly overlooked when convenient—most notably, Miami’s late-season leap over Notre Dame despite the Fighting Irish’s head-to-head win in Week 1. That shift was justified by the committee’s internal metrics, which remain undisclosed to the public, leaving fans to question the logic behind such shifts.

With five more ranking updates before Selection Sunday, the volatility of the process is already on full display, as teams’ positions could flip based on evolving proprietary data and committee sentiment. The selection chairman, Hunter Yurachek, has previously acknowledged the passion behind these debates, framing them as an inevitable part of college football’s landscape.

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