Yahoo Sports' Preseason College Football Top 25: After missing CFP in 2025, No. 2 Notre Dame looks primed for another run to the national title game
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College football officially begins this month.
Now that it's August, there are just days to go until Week Zero arrives. With the season quickly approaching, we're rolling out our preseason top 25.
After revealing our teams in the back half of our top 25, we continue our previews of the top 12 teams in the country with one that infamously missed the playoff in 2025.
Previously: Teams Nos. 13-25, No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 11 Alabama, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 7 Miami,No. 6 Georgia, No. 5 Texas,No. 4 Ohio State, No. 3 Indiana
No. 2 Notre Dame
2025 record: 10-2
Odds to win national championship: +650
Odds to make College Football Playoff: -700
2025 in 100 words or less
If you're looking for one word to sum up Notre Dame's 2025 season, it's "aggrieved." The Irish reeled off 10 straight wins after losing to Miami and Texas A&M by a combined four points over the first two weeks of the season. From there, Notre Dame dominated its opponents and won every game by at least 10 points.
The closest game was a 34-24 home win over USC and Notre Dame was ahead of Miami in the College Football Playoff rankings when the first set came out in November.
We all know what happened next. The Irish stayed ahead of Miami until the final set of rankings on conference championship weekend. Neither Notre Dame nor Miami played that weekend, but the CFP committee decided the last weekend was the time to finally flip the teams. Miami made the playoff, Notre Dame didn't.
Even if you believed that was the right outcome given Miami's Week 1 win, there was no defense for the CFP's process. Notre Dame refused to play in a bowl game after the snub and Miami ended up in the national title game.
The QB
CJ Carr
The grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr enters the 2026 season as the co-No. 1 Heisman favorite alongside Texas QB Arch Manning. Carr beat out Kenny Minchey — now at Kentucky — for the starting QB job in last fall's camp and grew into the role as the season went on.
Carr looked like an inexperienced starter in the first two weeks of the season. He was picked off in each of the two losses and might have even been giving away the type of plays Notre Dame was running against the Aggies with the way his feet would be set up when the team was in the shotgun.
He grew exponentially as the season went on, however, and had his breakout game of the season when he went 22-of-30 for 354 yards and four TDs in a blowout win over Arkansas.
Carr then threw at least two TDs in four of Notre Dame's final five games of the season. The only outlier was a 70-7 win against Syracuse that was so lopsided so early that Carr got to watch from the bench after throwing just nine passes.
Without Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price in the backfield in 2026, Carr's preseason Heisman status hinges a lot on Notre Dame throwing the ball more. Given an experienced group of receivers, Carr is in line for a potentially massive 2026 and could make himself a first-round NFL Draft pick in the process.
Eric Edholm's NFL Draft prospect to watch
CB Leonard Moore
Moore made a name for himself as an impressive freshman starter in 2024, finishing his first season strong. What he did in 2025 helped make Moore the best cornerback prospect right now in college football — and there's likely a sizable gap to No. 2. The 6-foot-2, 197-pound Moore has everything you want in a boundary corner: length, reactive quickness, body control, timing and instincts.
Although he typically lines up outside, he's also shown he can venture into the slot (see last year's USC game vs. Makai Lemon) and handle quicker, smaller wideouts. He's a bit high-cut and has had some tackling inconsistency in a few games, but Moore profiles as a possible top-10 pick whenever he declares.
College fantasy football player to watch
RB Aneyas Williams
With Price and Love both off to the NFL as first-round picks, it's now Williams' time to be Notre Dame's latest 1,000-yard back. He averaged over nine yards a carry in limited playing time in 2025, with 24 carries for 225 yards. As a freshman in 2024, he was used more as a receiver with 18 catches for 172 yards while also rushing 34 times for 219 yards.
Williams enters the season as Notre Dame's top back ahead of Kedren Young and Nolan James. Young missed the entirety of the 2025 season and James appeared in four games as a freshman in 2025. Both of them are talented, and should also see playing time similar to what Williams got a season ago.
But Williams' fantasy ranking reflects his status as the undisputed top option. Williams is the No. 13 running back in Yahoo's fantasy rankings and ahead of players like Ohio State's Bo Jackson and Michigan's Jordan Marshall.
Biggest game
Oct. 17 at BYU
The rematch with Miami is the most-anticipated game on Notre Dame's schedule. The Hurricanes visit South Bend on Nov. 7.
But we focused on that game in Miami's section. The BYU game is by far Notre Dame's toughest road game of the year. Outside of the trip to Provo, Notre Dame plays Wisconsin at Lambeau Field and Navy in Foxborough, Massachusetts, while visiting Purdue, North Carolina and Syracuse. Those teams hosting Notre Dame won a combined nine games in 2025.
The Irish are going to be heavily favored in each of their first six games of the season and should easily enter this matchup at 6-0. A win against the Cougars puts Notre Dame at 7-0 entering its bye week and nearly a guarantee for the College Football Playoff this time around with remaining games against Navy, Miami, Boston College, SMU and Syracuse.
Why Notre Dame is No. 2
It's time to talk about the Notre Dame defense. For as good as Carr can be with a group of receivers led by Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison, this is the unit that is going to drive Notre Dame's success in 2026.
Could it be the best defense in the country?
Notre Dame brings back its top six tacklers and that group doesn't include Moore, who is probably the unit's best player. The secondary is one of the top position groups in the country and the linebackers, led by Drayk Bowen, Christian Gray and Jaiden Ausberry, are also excellent.
It's truly hard to find a flaw with Notre Dame's defense. The only thing that could derail its dominance are injuries. After allowing 17.6 points per game and 4.6 yards a play in 2025, Notre Dame should easily improve on those numbers in 2026 thanks to a schedule that doesn't have USC and includes myriad power conference programs in a state of flux. Games against BYU, Miami and SMU are tough, but Notre Dame will be favored by multiple scores in every other contest.
We think Notre Dame comfortably makes the playoff and has every chance of playing for the national title like it did at the end of the 2024 season. But just in case things go a bit haywire in 2026, it's imperative to note that the Miami scenario cannot happen again if it unfolds the same way. There's now a provision in the playoff that puts Notre Dame automatically in the field if the Irish are in the top 12 in the final set of rankings. Thanks to the inclusion of Tulane and James Madison in the field in 2025, Notre Dame finished 11th in last season's final CFP poll but out of the playoff.
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