Final Four Weekend Sparks Bold Notre Dame Predictions for 2026 Season

With the Final Four taking place this weekend, college football experts made their picks for football's semi-finalists next season - and Notre Dame was an almost unanimous pick.

Head coach Marcus Freeman greets his players during a Notre Dame football practice at Irish Athletic Center on Friday, March 20, 2026, in South Bend. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The men's Final Four is taking place in Indianapolis this weekend, and as we have no need to worry about participating in it anytime soon, there is plenty of reason for optimism on the football field in 2026.

Notre Dame is almost guaranteed to be a top-five team in the preseason polls, and its roster is arguably the best of any Fighting Irish team in over 30 years.

CBS Sports had its college football gurus take a stab at which four teams will be in the College Football Playoff semi-finals this coming season, and five months out from the season, almost all eyes are on Notre Dame.

CBS Sports Experts All Over Notre Dame for 2026

Of the nine ballots submitted in the CBS Sports predictions, only one didn't have Notre Dame included in the semi-final.

David Cobb, Brad Crawford, Tom Fornelli, Chris Hummer, Shehan Jeyarajah, Brandon Marcello, Cody Nagel, and Chip Patterson all picked Notre Dame to be among the last four teams standing at the end of the season, while Austin Nivison picked against the Irish, instead going with Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, and Texas Tech.

Marcello gave perhaps the most ringing endorsement of Notre Dame this time around:

Notre Dame has the clearest path to the College Football Playoff of any team in America. I'm projecting the Irish to go 12-0, which will ignite debate over whether they deserve the No. 1 seed. They'll withstand every criticism -- the soft schedule, the talk about being snubbed last year -- but don't let any of that overshadow one of the most talented rosters in the country, and Marcus Freeman cementing himself as a top-five coach in the sport.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway

While the preseason hype is great and all, the exercise of picking the Final Four is a unfair ask at this point. While teams with a bye in the playoff have struggled, besides Indiana anyway, matchups in these games matter a ton.

Would Notre Dame getting the No. 1 seed be a positive for Marcus Freeman and company, or would getting a No. 2 or No. 3 seed offer a more favorable route to the national championship?

Notre Dame came into last season with a massive target on its back and ultimately wasn't ready for the moment in the first two games. Does another year of experience and cohesion at so many places on the roster and staff make that less likely?

Although the picks in the referenced exercise don't ultimately mean anything, it does give a pretty solid indication that Notre Dame will enter the season with its highest preseason ranking since 2006 (No. 2) in all likelihood.