Now that the 2025-26 college football season is officially underway, we can begin to assess teams that were hyped and talked about a lot over the offseason. In Week 1 alone there were four Top 10 teams that fell and the newest AP Top 25 rankings showed them taking a serious tumble.
All four were seen as College Football Playoff contenders entering the year and, so far, they should all still be but there's a lot of work to be done and zero room for error going forward. Of those four, only Notre Dame appears to have the easiest path to the postseason given their relatively smooth remaining schedule. The other three, however, have some tough conference gauntlets to navigate.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Entering the season as the No. 8 team in the nation, there were high expectations for the Crimson Tide. Losing to an unranked Florida State team that won just two games last year was definitely not on the agenda. That sank Alabama to No. 21 in the Week 2 rankings and they're just a couple weeks removed from a stacked SEC schedule that currently includes five future ranked matchups.
The Crimson Tide are going to need victories against each of No. 4 Georgia (Sept. 27), No. 22 Tennessee (Oct. 18), No. 10 South Carolina (Oct. 25), No. 3 LSU (Nov. 8) and No. 18 Oklahoma (Nov. 15) if they want a guaranteed spot in the College Football Playoff. That's assuming they take care of business against those foes not ranked. But with little room for error, head coach Kalen DeBoer could be on the hot seat in just year two at the helm.
Texas Longhorns
Losing right off the bat as the nation's No. 1 team isn't a good look. But the fact that Arch Manning had his first true road game as a starter against the defending national champions in Ohio State was always going to be a tough outing. Just not as tough as we all saw on Saturday.
Texas has four remaining ranked matchups on its schedule: At No. 13 Florida (Oct. 4), vs. No. 18 Oklahoma (Oct. 11), at No. 4 Georgia (Nov. 15) and vs. No. 19 Texas A&M (Nov. 28). Three of those are very winnable games but that's all dependent on 2024 Arch showing up to play and shaking off the Week 1 defeat. It's very tough to repeat in the SEC and the Longhorns could learn that the hard way with such high expectations set to start this year.
Clemson Tigers
There really isn't any reason to panic if you're a Clemson fan. Losing to LSU wasn't ideal but you're still kings of the ACC under head coach Dabo Swinney's leadership. There's still a clear path to the ACC title but a few obstacles remain in the way.
The Tigers have three ranked matchups upcoming so far: vs. No. 17 SMU (Oct. 18), vs. No. 14 Florida State (Nov. 8) and at No. 10 South Carolina (Nov. 29). Victories in all three should be guarantee them a CFP berth but there's still little room for error if any of those should wind up being losses. No team wants to start the year 0-1 because there's always that specter of required perfection creeping over the program. One more stumble and everything is called into question.