With fall camp and the season right around the corner, the hype around the Notre Dame football team is still rolling right along. The hype around the college football season in general is rolling right along as well. In that vein, On3’s Ari Wasserman put together his official prediction for how the College Football Playoff field will play out. As part of that prediction, Notre Dame fans will be pleased to know that the analyst believes the Irish will be the No. 1 team in the country when the CFP rolls around. There’s also some very bad news.
Wasserman laid out in his graphic on Twitter what quite a few people believe about where Marcus Freeman’s squad will be because of a schedule that doesn’t have a ton of premier teams on its horizon. Should the Fighting Irish manage to overcome Miami, BYU and SMU, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t go 12-0.
Even with a relatively easy schedule, a 12-0 record for Notre Dame would almost certainly have them No. 1 in the country and the top seed in the CFP. As Wasserman points out, that would mean they get a first-round bye and, in his prediction, would wait for the winner of No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 Ole Miss.
NEW: College Football Playoff Preseason Prediction via @AriWasserman🏆
— On3 (@On3) July 29, 2026
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Notre Dame football projected No. 1 seed before Oregon CFP quarterfinal loss
Unfortunately, Wasserman believes that a triumphant Ducks squad will then be a little too much for the Golden Domers to overcome. Oregon will move on to the next round against Miami (who beat Georgia on the other half of this bracket) and then also roll over the Hurricanes to march into the College Football Playoff finals.
On the other side, the On3 analyst believes that the No.3 Texas Longhorns will run over No. 11 Oklahoma and then No. 2 Ohio State to get to the finals as well. In a battle between Big Ten and SEC teams, Wasserman believes the SEC will finally emerge victorious, and the Longhorns will win their first national title since 2005.
While no Notre Dame fan wants to hear that their team won’t get past the second round of the CFP, especially in a season where they’re the No. 1 overall team, this also shows just how bizarre this 12-team playoff is. That the Irish would have to open their playoff slate against a team like Oregon seems like a design flaw. Of course, the last time Marcus Freeman’s squad got into the CFP, it upended all predictions and made a run to the championship game. There’s no reason to think they can’t do that again.
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