Five CFB teams under most pressure in 2026

The 2025 college football season may have just ended, but that only means it’s the perfect time for a way-too-early look ahead to 2026. 

A whirlwind transfer portal window has quieted, and most of this year’s top players are deciding on where they’ll play next.

With things settling, here’s a look at five teams that have positioned themselves nicely to make noise this fall. Anything less will be a disappointment.

Head coach Lane Kiffin brought this upon himself. Leaving Ole Miss four wins away from a national title to purportedly give himself more bites at the apple at LSU won’t give the college football firebrand an extended grace period in the national media or along the bayou.

He’ll need to produce positive results immediately, and his masterful job attracting elite talent via the transfer portal — plus retaining other key players — gives him a chance for a big introduction.

LSU has the country’s top transfer portal class, led by quarterback Sam Leavitt. Kiffin remade the wide receiver room by adding explosive wideouts Jackson Harris (49 receptions, 963 yards, 12 touchdowns in 2025), Jayce Brown (41 receptions, 712 yards, five touchdowns) and Tre Brown (38 receptions, 762 yards, four touchdowns), and notched a late win with former five-star Colorado offensive tackle Jordan Seaton signing on Friday. He joins a line that includes returning center Braelin Moore, while the Tigers also held on to massive 6-foot-7 tight end Trey’Dez Green and linebackers Whit Weeks and Davhon Keys. 

Elite former Ole Miss edge Princewill Umanmielen will be another immediate difference-maker transfer.

This hinges on Darian Mensah’s transfer saga with Duke working to Miami’s favor. Should he successfully get out of his Blue Devils contract, he’ll give Miami an upgrade over Carson Beck, who led the team to the 2026 CFP national championship game. 

Rising sophomore wide receiver Malachi Toney is one of the nation’s best pass-catchers, finishing his freshman year with 1,211 receiving yards. The Canes added former West Virginia wideout Cam Vaughn (35 receptions, 541 yards, four touchdowns) and South Carolina receiver Vandrevius Jacobs (32 receptions, 548 yards, four touchdowns) to make up for departing talent. Former Missouri edge Damon Wilson II, who had nine sacks in 2025, could have the same impact as potential 2026 NFL Draft first-rounder Rueben Bain Jr.

If the Big Ten joins the SEC as the only conference to produce four different champions in consecutive seasons during the BCS/CFP era, it will probably be Oregon breaking through with a national title. Quarterback Dante Moore should be a leading Heisman contender entering the season after forgoing the NFL Draft. The Ducks have great continuity on defense, particularly along the line of scrimmage with four returning starters — Matayo Uiagalelei, Teitum Tuioti, Bear Alexander, A’Mauri Washington — plus at linebacker with Jerry Mixon.

We’re hard-pressed to think of another player who improved as much from the start to the end of the 2025 season than Arch Manning, who needed time acclimating to his environment before thriving by the end of the year. Over his final six starts, Manning averaged 285.7 passing yards per game while accounting for 20 total touchdowns and two interceptions, raising expectations for his likely final collegiate season.

He’ll benefit from a receiving corps that includes returning wideouts Ryan Wingo (54 receptions, 834 yards, seven touchdowns) and Emmett Mosley V (28 receptions, 408 yards, three touchdowns) while adding Cam Coleman (56 receptions, 708 yards, five touchdowns) out of Auburn.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian has compiled the No. 3 transfer portal class this cycle, improving Manning’s protection with former Wake Forest offensive tackle Melvin Siani and getting a quarterback for the defense to replace Anthony Hill in former Pitt linebacker Rasheem Biles, who had 101 tackles (17.5 for loss) and two interceptions returned for touchdowns a season ago.

Could the Red Raiders be next season’s Indiana? Like the Hoosiers, Texas Tech will try to build off a breakthrough season with an even bigger follow-up.

The 2025 squad won a program-record 12 games and claimed the school’s first Big 12 title, only to go one-and-done in the CFP. In 2024, Indiana shattered the glass ceiling with a then-program record 11 wins, only to become the first 16-0 national champion since before the invention of airplanes the following season.

As with the Hoosiers, the Red Raiders appear to have made a sizable improvement at quarterback, signing Brendan Sorsby from Cincinnati. Trey White (19.5 career sacks) and Adam Trick (13 career sacks) will help fill the voids left by David Bailey and Romello Height, while former SWAC star receiver Jalen Jones (51 receptions, 1,167 yards, nine touchdowns in 2025) could be a sneaky-great find.