College Football Playoff rankings, Nov. 3: Miami atop initial CFP rankings of 2026
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
The College Football Playoff released its first set of rankings for the 2026 season on Tuesday night.
Miami, unsurprisingly, is No. 1. After surviving upset-minded North Carolina in Week 8, Mario Cristobal‘s team is 8-0 heading into a titanic matchup in South Bend against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish, meanwhile, are at No. 11, which would qualify them for an automatic bid.
Georgia, fresh off another win over Florida, is at No. 2 with a key game in Oxford coming up against No. 10 Ole Miss. Utah, Indiana, and Alabama round out the top five.
College Football Playoff rankings Week 9
Here’s a full look at the first CFP Top 25 of 2026:
- Miami
- Georgia
- Utah
- Indiana
- Alabama
- Kentucky
- Texas
- UCLA
- BYU
- Ole Miss
- Notre Dame
- Ohio State
- Tennessee
- LSU
- Texas Tech
- Wake Forest
- Houston
- Missouri
- Iowa
- USC
- South Carolina
- Arizona
- Oregon
- Florida
- Boise State
Projected College Football Playoff field
While not official, everything is trending toward a 24-team Playoff starting with the 2027 season. That means, of course, that this could be the last year of the 12-team field.
Here’s how a projected field would look based on Tuesday’s rankings:
Automatic bids
No. 1 Miami (projected ACC champion; first-round bye)
No. 2 Georgia (projected SEC champion; first-round bye)
No. 3 Utah (projected Big 12 champion; first-round bye)
No. 4 Indiana (projected B1G champion; first-round bye)
No. 11 Notre Dame (automatic bid by virtue of Top 12 ranking)
No. 12 Boise State (highest-ranked Group of Six team)
At-large bids
SEC: No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 7 Texas, No. 10 Ole Miss
B1G: No. 8 UCLA
Big 12: No. 9 BYU
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
