Episode Details

Ralph Russo, formerly of the Associated Press and now at The Athletic, researched how many teams from the preseason AP Top 25 would have made the College Football Playoff in each of the 10 years before the playoff expanded in 2024. Here's what he found. On average, the CFP field would have consisted of: 

• 4 of the top-5 teams in the preseason AP Poll
• 2 of the teams ranked from 6-10 in the preseason AP Poll
• 2 of the teams ranked from 11-20 in the preseason AP Poll
• 1 of the teams ranked from 21-25 in the preseason AP Poll
• 3 teams not ranked at all in the preseason AP Poll

Tony Gerdeman of BuckeyeInsiders.com joins host Tom Orr to use these guidelines to pick the 2026 College Football Playoff field, and they come up with some very different answers. Want to try your hand at it? The categories are listed below.

AP Preseason Top 5 (Pick 4 of these): Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, Notre Dame, Texas


AP Preseason 6-10 (Pick 2 of these): Indiana, Miami, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Oklahoma 


AP Preseason 11-20 (Pick 2 of these): LSU, Texas Tech, Alabama, BYU, USC, Michigan, Washington, Penn State, SMU, Tennessee 


AP Preseason 21-25 (Pick 1 of these): Utah, Iowa, Houston, Louisville, Missouri 


Unranked in the preseason AP Poll (pick 3 teams not listed above)