Contenders and Pretenders of the 2026/27 college football season

This season, unlike any other, has been one of ambiguity at the top as to which team is truly legitimate and elite, and which teams are hiding deadly weaknesses that will expose them early. Last year, highly touted Penn State was considered one of the national championship favorites, but they broke down mentally after only a few games, finishing as a mediocre 6-6 team. A team like Indiana, who was ranked in the 20s to start the year, ended up being the undefeated national champions. Now, we’ll try to tease out a couple of the contenders and pretenders of the 26/27 college football season. 

Contenders:

Oregon is probably one of the most top-to-bottom talented teams this year. They have an incredibly deep wide receiver room, with Evan Stewart, Dakorien Moore, and Jeremiah McClellan being a nearly unstoppable trio. Moore and McClellan had highlight reel catches last season, and the already dangerous Oregon wide receiver room from 2025 will have Stewart back from injury, transfer Iverson Hooks (UAB), and multiple highly touted young receivers such as Dylan Gresham and Gatlin Bair. Oregon also has one of the most fearsome defenses in the country, a characteristic unusual for the team known for a high-flying offense. Oregon’s secondary, with high-level DBs such as Brandon Finney, IIfy Obidegwu, and true freshman Trey McNutt all being able to lock down the pass. Finney, in particular, shined last year in the postseason, with 2 interceptions in the Orange Bowl against Texas Tech. The only potential weakness in this Oregon team is the offensive line, as they lost a few starters to the NFL, but they’re replacing those gaps with 5-star freshman Immanuel Iheanacho and 4-star Tommy Tofi, who should be able to gel quickly with the remaining veterans on the line. All in all, Oregon should be poised to once again make a run to the postseason and challenge for a national title. 

Notre Dame is considered by many to be one of the best teams in college football heading into the season, and I share that opinion. Notre Dame is posed to be a lethal threat through the air, with QB CJ Carr being one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Notre Dame also has veteran defenders returning, such as Safety Adon Shuler (53 tackles) and DB Leonard Moore (31 tackles), making them a much more well-rounded team than many of the other highly-touted programs heading into the year. Notre Dame doesn’t have many glaring weaknesses as they enter the season, but there’s little chance for them to be exposed and adapt to potential weaknesses as they arise. Notre Dame arguably only has a 1 or 2 game schedule this season, with their only ranked opponents being Miami and BYU. Should Notre Dame lose even one of these games, especially against a Miami team who were the runner-ups last year, their playoff resume would go into question. Notre Dame doesn’t have many big weaknesses, and should make a good run in the postseason, but they have less margin for error than a team like Ohio State, who have a gauntlet of a schedule.

Pretenders:

Texas A&M, to put it bluntly, are overranked. They are ranked at #8 in the AP preseason poll, ahead of teams such as Ole Miss and even Oklahoma. While they did return receiver Mario Craver and brought in transfer receiver Isaiah Horton (Alabama) to keep the passing game potent, they lost a lot of personnel on the defensive end, especially at linebacker. Taurean York and Scooby Williams are both gone, and Texas A&M’s replacements aren’t at the same level. I expect a step down from Texas A&M’s defense, which was the tenth most efficient defense last season. Texas A&M also plays a brutally difficult back end of the year, with away games at #13 Alabama and #10 Oklahoma, and home games against #20 Tennessee and #5 Texas. Texas A&M will likely lose at least one or two of those games, and despite being a good team, are unlikely to make the playoffs. 

Texas, while still a very good team, isn’t the national championship threat that many in the national media are making them out to be. While Colin Simmons, the returning SEC sack leader, and top recruit Lance Jackson make up a top-level defensive line, the other side of the trenches is lacking in chemistry and experience. The offensive line issues last year hurt Texas hard in their game against Ohio State, and I expect those chemistry issues to persist through the first couple games of the season. If Texas isn’t able to figure out their offensive line issues by the time of the Tennessee or Oklahoma games, they’ll be in real trouble, already potentially having lost two games during the first five. Texas is on much more of a razor’s edge than most would portray them as, and the offensive line coming together quickly with seven players leaving is the most important aspect of their season.