NCAA Football: Preseason Poll Simulates College Football Playoff Field

Fort Myers Naples, FL, August 25, 2026 —

A simulation of the College Football Playoff (CFP) bracket, based on the preseason AP Top 25 poll, projects Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, and Notre Dame as the top four seeds.

Under this projection, the top four teams would earn a chance to compete for the national championship. The specific matchups for the first round of the simulated playoff include Ole Miss traveling to face Texas A&M, and Texas Tech hosting Indiana. These matchups follow the standard format where higher-seeded teams are set to host lower-seeded teams in the initial games of the tournament.

The College Football Playoff system determines its participants through a selection committee that ranks teams at the end of the regular season. However, this simulation provides an early look at potential playoff scenarios using the widely recognized preseason AP Top 25 poll as a starting point. The AP Poll ranks teams based on votes from sports writers and broadcasters across the country.

The top four projected seeds – Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, and Notre Dame – represent programs that are consistently ranked among the nation’s elite. Their placement in the simulated bracket indicates a strong preseason expectation for their performance throughout the upcoming season.

Further details regarding the selection process, selection committee criteria, and the full projected bracket beyond the top four seeds were not available in the provided summary. The outcomes of the simulated first-round games and subsequent rounds remain speculative, contingent on the actual performance of teams throughout the college football season.

Story summarized from the original created by AP on apnews.com, see more information here.