Miami · ACCThree 2026 CFP Brackets Pick Miami, Notre Dame and LSU to Win the Title
Jake Crain, David Cone and Blain Crain agree on several playoff contenders, then take three very different roads to January. Their projections show how quickly one upset can change a championship path in the expanded field.
AUG 26, 2026
Projected brackets
LSU playoff wins
Playoff teams
01 · The NewsWhat Happened
Jake Crain, David Cone and Blain Crain each released a projected 12-team College Football Playoff bracket and chose a national champion. Crain picked Miami to beat Georgia after the Hurricanes defeated Ohio State and Notre Dame. Cone selected Notre Dame over Texas, with the Fighting Irish entering as the No. 1 seed and winning the title without a loss in his projection. Blain Crain sent No. 9 LSU through Texas, No. 1 Indiana and Miami before a championship victory over Ohio State. The opening round also included Texas over Oregon, Indiana over Georgia, Oklahoma over Texas A&M or LSU depending on the bracket, and LSU over Texas in Blain Crain's version. These remain preseason projections, not an announced field.
02 · The StakesWhy This One Matters
The useful part is the disagreement over how much chaos the contenders can absorb. Miami reaches the championship game in Jake Crain's bracket and the semifinal in David Cone's, while Blain Crain has the Hurricanes losing one round earlier. Notre Dame gets the title in Cone's projection, reaches the semifinal for Jake Crain, and falls in the quarterfinals for Blain Crain. Ohio State appears in every bracket but ranges from a first-round participant to a championship finalist. That spread matters because the expanded format gives a projected seed real football value. A team may be judged as a contender before the bracket exists, then face a completely different burden once the matchups are set.
03 · The Detail Beneath the HeadlineWhat Most People Are Missing
The seed changes the opponent before a team ever reaches the games that dominate the conversation. Notre Dame is No. 1 in Cone's bracket and No. 2 in Blain Crain's, but those positions lead to different quarterfinal assignments and different semifinal possibilities. The same program can be treated as protected in one projection and immediately exposed in another. That is why bracket talk cannot be reduced to a champion list. The path is part of the claim.
“Blain Crain trusts LSU to win four consecutive playoff games and then beat Ohio State.”
The Wire Desk04 · The PersonnelWhat This Changes
The projections turn the playoff into a sequence of football problems rather than a ranking exercise. Jake Crain sees Miami surviving two heavyweight games before the title game. Cone sees Notre Dame doing the same. Blain Crain asks LSU to win four straight playoff games, including three against teams projected to receive top seeds or close to them. Those paths demand different things from a roster. A team may need to handle a fresh opponent after a bye, adjust to a second game against a different style, or play its best football four times in a row. The hosts are not merely choosing strong teams. They are choosing which teams can keep solving new problems when the field gets smaller.
05 · Honest ScaleWhat Happens Next
The strongest feature of these projections is their willingness to let the bracket move. Miami, Notre Dame and LSU are not just listed as contenders. Each receives a distinct route, and each route asks a different question about postseason survival. Jake Crain trusts Miami to clear the deepest part of the bracket. David Cone trusts Notre Dame to finish an undefeated run. Blain Crain trusts LSU to win four consecutive playoff games and then beat Ohio State. None of that establishes what will happen in December. It does give fans something better than a collection of names: three watchable theories about how the field can break.
06 · The Watch ListWhat We're Watching
At the 2026 field announcement
Compare the official seeds with these projections. The biggest changes will show whether the preseason disagreement came from team evaluation, bracket position or both.
In the opening round
Track the upset ideas involving Texas, Indiana, LSU, Oklahoma and Ole Miss. Each result will remove or preserve a different branch of the projected postseason.
In the quarterfinals
Pay attention to whether the top seeds draw the kinds of opponents projected here. The first matchup after the opening round will show how much protection the seed actually provided.
In the championship game
Grade the three title picks against the final pairing: Miami, Notre Dame or LSU against the opponent each bracket placed across the field.