College GameDay crew makes early College Football Playoff National Championship picks

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Saturday featured the first edition of College GameDay for the 2026 college football season.

The weekly college football show was in Baton Rouge to preview the Clemson-LSU game and the rest of Week 1.

Towards the end of the show, the GameDay crew revealed their early national title picks for the 2026 season. Desmond Howard picked Texas to win it all and has the program beating Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

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Nick Saban also has Texas in the National Championship Game, but doesn’t have the program winning. He has Texas losing to Miami.

Pat McAfee was next in line and picked Indiana and Ole Miss to play for college football’s biggest prize. He has Indiana going back-to-back. Finally, Kirk Herbstreit made his pick and has Notre Dame beating Indiana to win it all.

It should also be mentioned that celebrity guest picker Lainey Wilson picked LSU to beat Miami in the title game.

These are all solid picks since these teams are among the favorites to win it all this season. We’ll just have to see if any of these predictions come true once we get to the end of the season.

College GameDay will return next Saturday from Austin, Texas, to preview the Week 2 showdown between Ohio State and Texas. The show will then be in Oxford, Mississippi, for Week 3 to preview the LSU-Ole Miss game.

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