College Football Playoff rankings: Miami leads first rankings of 2026; Notre Dame, Ohio State outside top 10

Miami is ranked atop the season's first set of College Football Playoff rankings .

The undefeated Hurricanes are No. 1 in the AP Top 25 and were the unsurprising top team in Tuesday night's inaugural rankings of 2026. But you didn't have to go very far down the rankings to find some stark differences between the AP poll and the CFP selection committee's rankings.

Notre Dame, which is at No. 4 in the AP poll, was ranked No. 11 on Tuesday night. The one-loss Irish missed out on the College Football Playoff a season ago after the committee moved them behind Miami in the final set of rankings even though neither team played on conference championship weekend.

Miami, of course, beat Notre Dame in Week 1. And the two teams play again on Saturday night in a game that somehow looks even more pivotal for the playoff than it did 24 hours ago.

If Notre Dame loses to Miami again, will it miss the College Football Playoff again?

The Irish have games against Boston College, SMU and Syracuse remaining. All of those teams are unranked. The Irish have a very clear path to 10-2 if they lose to the Hurricanes. And given the way the committee appears to be valuing strength of schedule, Notre Dame could find itself on the outside looking in for a second straight season.

CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek — the athletic director at Arkansas — cited Notre Dame's schedule as the main reason why the Irish were at No. 11.

"When you look at Notre Dame's schedule and the wins they have versus the teams that are ahead of them, they don't have that signature win right now," Yurachek said on ESPN. "They lost in their only top-25 matchup at BYU, their next-best win is at a neutral site. They've got a great opportunity in front of them at home versus Miami to get that signature win that I think they need to move up in the rankings."

The Irish are ranked behind three two-loss teams. Georgia, Utah and Indiana filled out the top four with two-loss Alabama a surprising No. 5. The Crimson Tide are eight spots ahead of Tennessee. The Volunteers have an identical 6-2 record and beat the Crimson Tide by 16 points.

Alabama is also ahead of Kentucky. The Tide handed the Wildcats their only loss of the season in Week 2. Texas is at No. 7 ahead of undefeated UCLA. BYU and Ole Miss are the last two teams in the top 10.

How much does strength of schedule matter?

Ohio State's losses are to No. 7 Texas and No. 20 USC. The Buckeyes, who handed Indiana its only loss of the season, are at No. 12 behind the Fighting Irish as they're likely to be without QB Julian Sayin for the rest of the season . That injury is clearly a driving factor why Ohio State is outside the top 10.

Overall, 10 teams with one loss or fewer are in the first set of rankings. Four of those teams are outside of the top 10. Texas Tech is at No. 15, Wake Forest is at No. 16 and Boise State is at No. 25.

Of the six two-loss teams inside the top 15, six are from the SEC. It's clear the committee values the SEC as the top conference in the country and that view comes after the SEC spent the spring and summer pushing for strength of schedule to be a greater factor considered by the committee.

Right now, it looks very plausible that a three-loss SEC team could make the playoff as Alabama did a season ago. This season, Yurachek credited Alabama's win over Kentucky and wins over Mississippi State (when QB Kamario Taylor was available) and South Carolina as to why the Crimson Tide were in the top five.

If you're confused, annoyed, frustrated or any combination of the above with the first set of rankings, we have some good news for you: Week 10 is going to give us a lot of clarity.

Not only does No. 1 Miami play No. 11 Notre Dame, but No. 2 Georgia visits No. 10 Ole Miss, No. 9 BYU goes to No. 3 Utah, No. 5 Alabama heads to No. 14 LSU, No. 13 Tennessee hosts No. 6 Kentucky and No. 7 Texas visits No. 18 Missouri. There's a very real chance that all three two-loss teams in the top 10 could have three losses by the end of Saturday.

Or, if you're a fan of chaos, we could have an even bigger morass of two-loss teams. That's possible too. But we're betting on things sorting themselves out at least somewhat before the second set of rankings.