With College Football Playoff not growing, Notre Dame needs to be Top 12 for a bid. Here’s its path in 2026.
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CHICAGO — After controversially being left out of the College Football Playoff in 2025, Notre Dame knows what it has to do to get into the 2026 playoff — be ranked in the Top 12.
The College Football Playoff announced Friday that it will remain at 12 teams next season after expansion talks between the SEC and Big Ten stalled. Multiple outlets reported that four Power 4 conference champions will receive automatic bids, as will the top-ranked conference champion from the Group of 6 in 2026.
But there’s one additional stipulation, which Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua confirmed last month: The Irish will receive a CFP bid if they are ranked in the top 12.
That’s a departure from the 2025 season, when Notre Dame finished No. 11 in the last CFP rankings but was left out of the field in favor of No. 9 Alabama and No. 10 Miami.
“People have asked me, ‘Well, how come Notre Dame gets that benefit?’ ” Bevacqua said during an end-of-season news conference. “And we still have to prove it on the field more than anybody. We still have to put ourselves in that area, that zip code of a top-12 team, but we want to protect ourselves against what happened this year.”
The Big Ten and SEC have been in talks to expand the CFP after two seasons with 12 teams. But ESPN reported Friday that Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti only would agree to CFP expansion to 16 teams if SEC commissioner Greg Sankey committed to a 24-team field after three years. Sankey wasn’t ready to do that, ESPN reported.
“After ongoing discussion about the 12-team playoff format, the decision was made to continue with the current structure,” CFP executive director Rich Clark said in a statement. “This will give the Management Committee additional time to review the 12-team format, so they can better assess the need for potential change.
“While they all agree the current format has brought more excitement to college football and has given more schools a real shot in the postseason, another year of evaluation will be helpful.”
At nearly the same time as the CFP news broke, Notre Dame released its 2026 schedule, which includes two teams that finished in the CFP top 12. The Irish will play at No. 12 BYU on Oct. 17 and will host national runner-up Miami on Nov. 7.
The Irish also will host SMU, which appeared in the CFP rankings for one week in 2025 on Nov. 25. Along with Navy, those are the only four teams on Notre Dame’s schedule that won more than five games in 2025.
Notre Dame has only four true road games: Purdue, North Carolina, BYU and Syracuse. The Irish also play two neutral-site games against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field and Navy at Gillette Stadium.
Notre Dame and USC announced last month that their longtime rivalry series is on pause after they failed to agree on scheduling.
Here’s the full Notre Dame football schedule, with times yet to be released.
— Sept. 6: Wisconsin at Lambeau Field
— Sept. 12: Rice
— Sept. 19: Michigan State
— Sept. 26: at Purdue
— Oct. 3: at North Carolina
— Oct. 10: Stanford
— Oct. 17: at BYU
— Bye week
— Oct. 31: Navy at Gillette Stadium
— Nov. 7: Miami
— Nov. 14: Boston College
— Nov. 21: SMU
— Nov. 28: at Syracuse
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