LSU's Playoff Hopes Are Hanging on a Brutal Two-Game Stretch

LSU football can play its way into the College Football Playoff over the next 10 days, with the toughest stretch of the schedule yet to come.

LSU will host No. 5 Alabama on Saturday and No. 7 Texas seven days later.

The 6-2 Tigers came in at No. 14 in the committee’s first rankings Tuesday night, just outside the projected 12-team field. A sweep would supply the ranked wins their resume lacks, but it would not settle where they stand against the teams directly ahead.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin has urged his players to tune out the rankings this week.

“Play really well and win, and you won’t have anything to worry about,” Kiffin said.

The Tells From the Initial Rankings

The goal pylon features logos of the College Football Playoff and Cotton Bowl inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas prior to the matchup between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Miami Hurricanes in the CFP quarterfinal game on Dec. 31, 2025. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

No. 13 Tennessee offers the clearest benchmark for what the committee rewards. The Volunteers, also 6-2, beat Alabama 26-10 on Oct. 17, yet rank eight spots behind the Crimson Tide.

Committee chairman Hunter Yurachek said Tennessee “doesn’t have that same level of quality wins” as Alabama, which beat No. 6 Kentucky before it was ranked, No. 21 South Carolina before it was ranked and Mississippi State with Kamario Taylor healthy and playing like a Heisman candidate.

Yurachek said head-to-head results count only when teams are compared in the same group, which kept Tennessee’s win over Alabama from mattering. That could cut both ways for LSU, whose 32-24 loss at No. 10 Ole Miss would count only if the committee placed the group in similar spots in their rankings.

Yurachek noted that LSU’s losses came to No. 6 Kentucky and No. 10 Ole Miss, and he credited its dominant wins and the places it ranks statistically, including the season-opening victory over Clemson.

If LSU adds those two ranked wins to its resume, the committee will have to make some difficult decisions with who moves into the path of the playoffs.

Because Boise State would likely claim the 12th seed as the top-ranked Group of Six team, Ohio State is effectively the first team out, Tennessee the second and LSU the third. That means the Tigers must pass both and push one team out of the bracket.

No. 11 Notre Dame has that last spot, with no win over a currently ranked team and hosts top-ranked Miami on Saturday. If Notre Dame loses, it is essentially out of the running.

With just how crazy college football has been this season, there's certainly a gap that LSU can close against Alabama.

You Sweep, You're In

Sep 26, 2026; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin reacts during the third quarter against the Texas A&M Aggies at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Alabama and Texas both sit inside the projected field, so beating them would lift LSU while pulling two rivals down. Those wins would hand Alabama a third loss and Texas, which has beaten Ohio State, Ole Miss and Tennessee, at least a third.

The value of those wins is not fixed, though, because the committee reranks teams every week. Texas visits No. 18 Missouri on Saturday, and a loss there would cheapen LSU’s Nov. 14 victory.

A sweep would leave LSU 8-2 with Tennessee and Arkansas to play, and a 10-2 finish would seal a berth. Even a third loss in November, to the right opponent, could still potentially see LSU in.

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