Notre Dame has been a popular pick by many to end its national championship drought this coming season, and now one of the biggest names in college football media has given the Fighting Irish his backing.
Joel Klatt, who does color commentary for the Fox Big Noon Kickoff game each week has released his College Football Playoff predictions for the 2026 season and has Notre Dame winning it all.
Klatt picks the Irish to beat Oregon in the national championship after earning the No. 2 overall seed and the First Round bye that comes with it.
He then has Notre Dame beating Georgia in the quarterfinals and Miami in the semi-finals.
Seeing as he has Notre Dame as the No. 2 overall seed and Miami as No. 3, it’s fairly safe to assume he thinks Notre Dame will get by Miami when the two meet for the November 7 showdown in South Bend.
Joel Klatt’s Full Bracket Projection for 2026
There are plenty of interesting things that come from Klatt’s bracket, largely from the Big Ten.
If Oregon is the No. 1 seed and he seemingly has Notre Dame beating Miami considering the ranking of each, does he think Oregon runs the regular season table and goes unbeaten?
Or does he think Notre Dame falls at BYU?
Or perhaps, does he think a one-loss Oregon team that wins the Big Ten gets ranked ahead of an unbeaten Notre Dame squad?
Also noteworthy to me is that he has USC in the College Football Playoff. USC has to go to both Penn State and Indiana while welcoming Oregon and Ohio State to Los Angeles. Can Lincoln Riley and the Trojans get to 10 wins with that slate?
And certain to anger fans from the Southeast – Klatt has this year coming and going without a team from the SEC making the semifinals. Boy, if Texas falls short of that, I can’t help but think Steve Sarkisian is out of a job.
What else does a man need in order to win big at a place than what he’s gotten in his time there?
Is Joel Klatt’s Pick Good or Bad for Fighting Irish?
If you’re a Notre Dame fan then you look at this and only get more hyped for the season, one that is as exciting to enter as any in the last 30 or so years.
However, are you excited that Klatt of all people picked your team to win it all?
His history comes with mixed results.
Just last year, Klatt couldn’t have been anymore wrong in his national championship prediction.
He had Clemson winning it all which couldn’t have been more far off.
Clemson fell at home in Week 1 to LSU and never came close to it’s preseason national championship contender hype, going just 7-6 overall after losing to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl.
However, the year before, Klatt picked Ohio State to win the national championship, something it did by beating Notre Dame in the final game.
Nick Shepkowski’s Quick Thoughts:
Gone are the days of picking Alabama or Clemson at the start of the year and having about an 87% chance of getting the national championship pick right.
The balance atop college football is as good as its been in my lifetime, and like it or not, NIL and the transfer portal are huge contributors to that.
That said, the falloff after the top seven or eight teams is also impressive.
For instance, USC might make the tournament, but that team isn’t making noise once it gets there.
Klatt picking Notre Dame doesn’t increase or decrease Notre Dame’s chances of winning it all, but it does speak to what Fighting Irish fans have believed under Marcus Freeman.
There was another level to this football program all along, and Freeman has the Fighting Irish knocking on the door of finally getting there.
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