Every summer since 2007 I have created an intricate set of college football predictions for each upcoming season. This year is no exception, as I will be using my blog over the next few hours to publish my 20th annual college football preview guide which will contain 20 entries in all. The records below reflect each team’s predicted regular season overall record followed by their conference record. These records include conference title games but exclude bowl games, which will be previewed later on in a separate column on this blog. The teams marked in bold font are the ones predicted to gain bowl eligibility this season and the one marked in italics is my predicted conference champion. Without further ado, here are my predictions for the two remaining FBS independents in 2026, as Notre Dame may be the last unaffiliated team in college football if this trend continues.

1	Notre Dame (11-1)- CFP Participant

Last Year’s Record: 10-2 (My 2025 prediction: 10-2)- I was all over the Irish’s 2025 performance within this prediction!

Positional Strength: Offensive Line

Positional Weakness: Running Back

Biggest Predicted Win of the Year: vs. Miami-FL (November 7)

Worst Predicted Loss of the Year: at BYU (October 16)- if the Irish are going to lose a game this fall in the regular season, this will be it.

Bottom Line: Like a lot of college football fans, I have a legitimate love/hate relationship with Notre Dame. I love the program’s tradition, Christian principles, and intriguing quest to end a lengthy national title drought. Meanwhile, I hate the program’s air of superiority in doing things such as declining bowl bids like they did last year and creating its own tailor-made schedule like they have this year. This year’s Irish slate is a complete joke, as they basically have stamped their own CFP berth in the preseason by scheduling a few Big Ten bottom-dwellers (Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Purdue), a slew of mediocre to bad ACC squads (BC, Stanford, UNC, and Syracuse), some Group of Five teams (Navy and Rice) and sprinkling in a couple of challenging games that they likely won’t even have to win (vs. Miami-FL and at BYU). In fact, Notre Dame only plays one game outside of South Bend against a team with a winning record in 2025 (at BYU- October 17). Because of this, Notre Dame will almost assuredly compete in this year’s College Football Playoff. What happens once they are there is anyone’s guess. They should enter the CFP as the healthiest and most rested team in the field due to the east of their regular season schedule, but they also will be making a big leap in terms of their level of competition. However, it is hard not to see Notre Dame not contending for a national title in 2026 given their returning experience and their ability to sleepwalk through the entire regular season.

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2	UConn (5-7)

Last Year’s Record: 9-4 (My 2025 prediction: 8-4)- I certainly nailed my picks for the FBS indepdependents last year

Positional Strength: Defensive Line

Positional Weakness: Quarterback

Biggest Predicted Win of the Year: at Wyoming (November 28)

Worst Predicted Loss of the Year: at Temple (October 10)

Bottom Line: What a successful run Jim Mora had at UConn taking this doormat of a college football program to bowl games in three of the last four seasons. His departure is a huge loss for the Huskies, but Jason Candle is about as good of a replacement hire as this school could have hoped for. I think Candle will be able to sustain Mora’s success, but there is just too much roster turnover from last year for me to call for this team to make a third straight bowl in 2026. Expect a slight step back this year in Storrs with an eye towards greater successes in 2027 and beyond.

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