Miami, Georgia and Utah lead Nick Bromberg’s November 1 projection for Yahoo Sports ahead of the first 2026 College Football Playoff rankings. The actual committee Top 25 will be announced Tuesday, November 3, in a 7–8 pm ET show on ESPN. Until then, the order is a journalist’s forecast, not a committee decision.
Week 9 has made the first reveal consequential: it will show how the committee weighs teams’ records against the opposition they faced. A projected list offers one interpretation of that evidence. The useful next step is to compare its reasoning with the committee’s published protocol and then with Tuesday’s decision.
What the projection says
Bromberg puts Miami first, Georgia second and Utah third. His forecast also places Indiana fourth and BYU fifth. These are attributed positions from his article, not a prediction calculated by this newsroom. The complete ranking argument and his assessment of the weekend’s winners and losers are available in the original forecast.
The limits matter as much as the order. A forecast cannot tell readers how committee members will resolve close comparisons, and the first interim list does not decide the final playoff field. Earlier AP poll coverage describes a separate ranking process; its positions should not be relabelled as CFP votes.
When the official list arrives
NCAA.com lists the first reveal for November 3 from 7 to 8 pm Eastern on ESPN. That is 6–7 pm Central, 5–6 pm Mountain and 4–5 pm Pacific in the corresponding US standard-time zones. In Britain, the same window is midnight to 1 am GMT on Wednesday, November 4. The British time conversion does not establish a UK broadcaster or streaming entitlement.
The published calendar continues with November 10 and 17 at 9 pm ET, November 24 at 7:30 pm and December 1 at 7 pm, before the December 6 selection show starts at noon ET. US viewers can use ESPN’s announced programme; readers elsewhere should use the official rankings route for the published list. No free access or particular subscription price is established here.
How to read Tuesday’s decisions
The CFP protocol names strength of schedule, head-to-head results and comparisons against common opponents among the factors for otherwise comparable teams. It also allows relevant player or coach unavailability to be considered and says no single metric determines the evaluation. Readers can follow the published protocol when checking an unexpected placement.
Tuesday’s real information will therefore be the committee’s treatment of close cases, not whether every position matches one forecast. Compare the stated criteria with the teams immediately above and below a disputed place, then watch how later results change that comparison. Miami’s lead in Yahoo’s projection gives the discussion a starting point; the first official judgment still arrives on November 3.
Prepared by the editorial team from official records and reviewed public sources.
- NCAA first CFP rankings schedule ↗
- CFP official selection protocol ↗
- Nick Bromberg, Yahoo Sports Week9 forecast, Nov1 ↗