Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt has locked in Notre Dame as his national champion for the 2026 college football season, projecting the Fighting Irish to beat Oregon in January and end a title drought that has lasted since 1988.
Klatt laid out a full 12-team College Football Playoff bracket on his show just days before kickoff, working through conference championship games, seeding the field from 1 to 12 and then picking winners all the way to the final.
Oregon sits at No. 1 in that projection even after a regular-season loss. Klatt has the Ducks beating Indiana in the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis, which would give Oregon a second league title in its first three years in the conference.
“The Ducks take the top spot,” he said, adding that “they are rewarded for winning the Big Ten.”
Notre Dame comes in at No. 2 as an unbeaten team. Klatt still has the committee ranking Oregon first because Notre Dame’s “schedule is just not anywhere close.”
From there, Klatt has Oregon beating USC in the quarterfinals in a rematch of their regular-season meeting. The Ducks then draw Ohio State in the semifinals, another rematch of the Buckeyes’ Nov. 7 home game against Oregon in Columbus.
“Give me Oregon in the semifinal,” Klatt said, sending the Ducks to the national championship game for the second time in three years.
Notre Dame reaches that title game without a loss in Klatt’s bracket. He has the Irish facing Georgia in the quarterfinals in a rematch of a previous playoff meeting between the programs.
Klatt said a narrative would grow during the season about Notre Dame’s level of competition, then brushed that idea aside.
“I think Notre Dame is going to be incredible,” he said.
The Irish then meet Miami in the semifinals, a rematch of their regular-season game in South Bend.
“Notre Dame is that good,” Klatt said. “I think this roster is outstanding.”
He called cornerback Leonard Moore the best defender in the country and quarterback C.J. Carr one of the best quarterbacks in the sport. Those pieces, in his view, are enough to get Notre Dame past Miami and into a championship meeting with Oregon.
Klatt then made the pick official.
“My national champ in my very first bracket prediction: Notre Dame Fighting Irish,” he said.
He has missed on this exercise before. Last season he picked Clemson to win it all, and the Tigers never got close after a Week 1 home loss to LSU and a 7-6 finish.
This time he is betting on the two teams he ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in his preseason poll to meet in the title game, with Notre Dame coming out on top.
The rest of his field includes first-round games such as Ohio State over Boise State, USC over Texas Tech, Indiana over Alabama and Georgia over LSU. He has Ohio State then beating Texas in the quarterfinals and Miami beating Indiana in a rematch of last season’s championship game.
Four SEC teams make his bracket in Texas, Georgia, LSU and Alabama, but none of them reach the semifinals. That projection is sure to stir debate across the South as soon as the games start.
Klatt has backed Notre Dame through much of the offseason, pointing to Marcus Freeman’s roster and a defense that can travel in January. Oregon, led by Dan Lanning and quarterback Dante Moore, remains the team he sees as the most complete on paper entering the year.
Preseason brackets almost never survive the first month intact. Injuries, upsets and committee debates will rewrite the picture soon enough.
For now, one of the sport’s most visible voices has Notre Dame cutting down the nets in January and Oregon coming up one game short again.
