The biggest gainer: No. 14 Oklahoma, up from No. 25. The Sooners recently added RB Jaydn Ott (Cal) and OG Jake Maikkula (Cal’s ACC archrival, Stanford) to their totally overhauled offense. Also making a big jump is No. 19 Texas Tech, which has probably signed like 38 more players since I started writing this newsletter.

Under the previous agreement, only the four highest-ranked conference champions received automatic placement in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.

The first obvious advantage is that if Notre Dame is a top four seed it will only have to win three games to win a national championship. Notre Dame won three games in the 2024-25 College Football Playoff, beating Indiana (27-17), Georgia (23-10) and Penn State (27-24), but those victories simply got the Irish to the national title game.