Joel Klatt reveals College Football Playoff predictions ahead of 2026 season
By Jacob Moss
Published:
The 2026 college football season is set to officially kick off this Saturday with an action-packed Week 0 slate that will feature several Power 4 matchups.
This means the talking season has finally almost ended, and teams and players across the country can start building narratives through their play on the gridiron.
Analysts still have a bit more time to get their final preseason takes in before this happens, though, and Fox’s Joel Klatt just put out his final College Football Playoff prediction ahead of all the action this weekend.
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Klatt’s final preseason CFP prediction has the Notre Dame Fighting Irish knocking off the Oregon Ducks in the National Championship game to secure their first title since 1988.
He also has 4 SEC squads making the final field in Texas (No. 4), Georgia (No. 7), LSU (No. 10), and Alabama (No. 11), but he doesn’t have any of them making it past the second round. His semi-finalists outside of the Ducks and the Irish are Ohio State (No. 5) and Miami (No. 3).
Klatt has been adamant in his support of Notre Dame all offseason, so this prediction isn’t exactly shocking from him. These preseason predictions rarely play out the way anybody thinks they will, though, so it will be interesting to see how everything goes over the course of the season.
