2026 College Football Rankings: Georgia Reclaims No. 1 As Notre Dame Beats Miami

Joel Klatt has a new No. 1 team in the country, and it’s a familiar one.

Georgia returns to the top spot after a 42-7 rout at Ole Miss, while Miami tumbles five spots to No. 6 after a 31-24 loss at Notre Dame. Notre Dame, Indiana, UCLA and Utah each move up a spot.

Tennessee returns to the top 10 at No. 8 after beating Kentucky, Alabama moves up to No. 9, and BYU lands at No. 10. Kentucky and Ohio State fall out, and Texas holds at No. 7.

Only two undefeated teams remain, and Klatt has them back to back at Nos. 4 and 5. Here is how he ranked the country’s 10 best teams, on the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show”.

Odds to make CFP: +255 (17th)

Odds to win national title: +10000 (tied for 16th) 

Klatt’s thoughts: “BYU is number 10. They’re still in my top 10. There was obviously a lot going on. How it played out, 28-20, I still have them kind of right there, and so they’re number 10, just behind Alabama.”

Odds to make CFP: -3000 (third)

Odds to win national title: +680 (third)

Klatt’s thoughts: “Bama is at nine. I’m still not going with the committee, partly because you’re going to see why I have a seven and eight, and you’re going to be like, ‘Well, yeah, that makes sense’ … I’m not just going to throw things out there willy-nilly and then say, ‘See, guys?’ And by the way, Bama’s performance did not validate their ranking from the CFP committee, because it still doesn’t make sense.

“I know people are going to be upset with Bama. Bama fans think that I hate Bama. I don’t hate Bama. In fact, I just direct you back to what I talked about earlier, giving a lot of praise to Bama.”

Odds to make CFP: +130 (11th)

Odds to win national title: +3700 (10th)

Klatt’s thoughts: “Tennessee is going to be at No. 8. Why is Tennessee at eight and Bama at nine? Because I have two eyes and watched Tennessee beat Alabama, which the committee apparently did not do. Now Tennessee beats Kentucky. That’s a really good win for them. They run the football, man.

“What I’ve loved about Tennessee over the last year-and-a-half, two years, is that I feel like Josh Heupel got away from being just the throw-it-all-over-the-lot type of team, and he has a run-oriented team now. That’s been an evolution over the last few years, and it’s taken root. They’re an active, aggressive defense that creates some havoc, and so they ended up putting on a clinic against Kentucky, and the bottom kind of fell out for Kentucky. They ran the ball for 240 yards. The defense didn’t allow a touchdown to Will Stein’s offense. So Tennessee is in there again. Head-to-head win with Alabama.”

Odds to make CFP: -380 (eighth)

Odds to win national title: +1050 (tied for fifth)

Klatt’s thoughts: “Seven is Texas. ‘Why is Texas No. 7, Tennessee eight and Alabama nine, Joel?’ Because games matter. Texas is seven and Tennessee is eight because Texas beat Tennessee. Tennessee is eight, and Alabama is nine because Tennessee beat Alabama. Committee, it’s not that difficult. Texas came back to win at Missouri. Arch Manning threw for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns.”

Odds to make CFP: -2500 (fourth)

Odds to win national title: +800 (fourth)

Klatt’s thoughts: “Strange as it sounds, I was more impressed with Miami than I was Notre Dame after it was all said and done. Let me tell you exactly why. Miami found something in the third quarter specifically, on the road, in the cold. This is not where Miami succeeds, guys. The argument against Mario Cristobal over the last couple of years is that he couldn’t win big games on the road. They don’t win this game, but it wasn’t a big, big mistake. It’s not like they got a punt blocked in the national championship game when the opposing team wasn’t even trying to block the punt. It wasn’t a penalty that they committed in a roughing-the-passer fashion against SMU that allows SMU to beat them on the road. This felt different.

“They came out and got kind of bum-rushed early, and guess what? They regroup, and they don’t have their star wide receiver Malachi Toney, and they find ways to have success.”

Odds to make CFP: -700 (sixth)

Odds to win national title: +2600 (eighth)

Klatt’s thoughts: “How about Utah? No. 5. Devon Dampier leading the way. Defense leading the way. I love Utah this year. I think Utah is well on their way to a College Football Playoff berth. Now they just beat the team that beat Notre Dame. BYU beat Notre Dame, now Utah beat BYU. Now BYU’s got a couple of losses, so obviously they’re going to move down a little bit.

“But now Utah, even if they don’t win the Big 12, I don’t think the Big 12 is relegated to a one-bid league anymore. If Utah were to lose the Big 12 championship game at this point, I think Utah would still go to the College Football Playoff.”

Odds to make CFP: -430 (seventh)

Odds to win national title: +3300 (ninth)

Klatt’s thoughts: “UCLA is No. 4 in the country for me. UCLA is a damn good football team. They play great defense. They’ve got length and athleticism. They’ve got All-Americans on that side of the ball, probably two of them, maybe three. They’ve got really good defensive backs. They’ve got a great back and a quarterback that’s getting better. The offensive line, they can run the football. What’s not to like for UCLA? ‘It’s their schedule, Joel.’ All right. Well, I’m just telling you right now, in that matchup and in that location, that was an impressive performance on Saturday. I fully expect that they move up. Hopefully, the committee will allow them to move up.”

Odds to make CFP: -4000 (second)

Odds to win national title: +400 (second) 

Klatt’s thoughts: “Notre Dame’s at three. Both Notre Dame and Miami can win the national championship. Watching Miami and Notre Dame, I love each of (these quarterbacks). CJ Carr, his arm talent kind of jumps off the tape. Prototypical. You can tell he processes very fast in his mind. He’s got a great platform, and he can make every single throw.

“Notre Dame’s in a great spot. They’re both headed to the playoffs in my estimation, and they should. They’re both really good teams. They’re two of the only teams in the country that can line up, and I would honestly say, ‘Okay, I want to see this against who I now think is the best team in the country.'”

Odds to make CFP: -1300 (fifth)

Odds to win national title: +1050 (tied for fifth)

Klatt’s thoughts: “No. 2 is Indiana. This might be more anticipatory, but I still think that team just knows how to win. I think they’re going to be really formidable on offense if they go with Grant Wilson and away from Josh Hoover. Not because Josh Hoover isn’t good. He was very good early, actually. It’s because he’s injured, and I believe that injury doesn’t allow them to be at their best. If they can be at their best, Charlie Becker is a monster.

“The defense is elite. They’re number one in the country in yards per play defense. They were a great defense last year. Every coordinator that I talk to in college football, I always ask them similar questions: What’s the toughest offense you face? What’s the toughest defense you face? The common answer for who’s doing the best job on defense is Indiana and Bryant Haines. 

“I still believe that this team does a better job than most of winning the game in front of them. They’re the defending national champion, and they’re a one-loss team by six inches in a game in which Ohio State really was the real Ohio State, with Julian Sayin at quarterback. So I think that they’re the number two team in the country.”

Odds to make CFP: -9000 (first)

Odds to win national title: +245 (first)

Klatt’s thoughts: “Georgia is No. 1 as they should be, and until further notice, because that’s the best team in college football. That’s the team with the highest floor. That’s the team that I think can play the best and most dominant style of defense, regardless of who’s the number one defense in the country statistically, total defense, scoring defense and so forth. It doesn’t really matter. They may end up in that position. They may not. But the 11 guys that walk out and play the best defense in college football wear a Georgia Bulldogs uniform, so they’re No. 1 in the country.”