2026 College Football Playoff bracket projection: UCLA just misses cut, Notre Dame into top four — SkimNews
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- UCLA fell out of the projected 12-team playoff field after quarterback Nico Iamaleava suffered a season-ending knee injury against Oregon, leaving untested Cal Poly transfer Ty Dieffenbach (6 career pass attempts) to start at Wisconsin
- Georgia rose to the No. 1 seed at 6-0 as the projected SEC champion, with CBS Sports' forecasting model giving the Bulldogs a 99.8% playoff probability
- Notre Dame jumped from No. 6 to No. 4 after a 58-7 demolition of Stanford that included five rushing touchdowns and 361 rushing yards, with a 98% playoff probability if it beats BYU this week
- Texas plummeted from No. 1 to No. 7 after a last-second Red River Rivalry loss to Oklahoma, intensifying scrutiny on coach Steve Sarkisian and quarterback Arch Manning
- Kentucky entered the projection at No. 11 for the first time after an overtime win over LSU, vaulting first-year coach Will Stein into early Coach of the Year contention
- Alabama held at No. 5 despite a 20-17 loss to Georgia, retaining an 87.7% playoff probability if it beats Tennessee this weekend
Why it matters: UCLA's loss of Iamaleava — a former five-star with 982 passing yards and four TDs — removes a surprise 5-0 contender from the at-large bubble and shifts a projected playoff bid to other one-loss teams. Georgia's move to the top seed and Texas's four-spot free-fall after the Oklahoma loss reorder the SEC hierarchy with conference title races still undecided, while Notre Dame's Stanford rout positions the Irish for a top-four bye if they survive BYU.
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