College football’s Week 3 slate for the 2026 season featured Ole Miss beating LSU in the biggest game of the weekend, Alabama rallying for a win over Florida State, Louisville outscoring SMU in a critical ACC showdown and Mississippi State and Florida picking up key wins in SEC play. Texas holds the No. 1 spot in the playoff rankings after a victory over UTSA, with Ole Miss moving inside of the top five to join Georgia, Notre Dame and Indiana.
The postseason begins on Dec. 15 with two matchups and continues until Jan. 25 with the national championship at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The playoffs start on Dec. 18 with one first-round game, followed by three on Saturday, Dec. 19, hosted at on-campus sites. The quarterfinals are slated for Dec. 30 and Jan. 1. The semifinals for the College Football Playoff take place on Jan. 14 and Jan. 15; the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl host the matchups.
Due to conference realignment, some of the bowl tie-ins will be scrambled again in ’26. Former Pac-12 teams are eligible for bowl appearances in the conference’s old tie-ins. One postseason contest — the Arizona Bowl — has yet to set a date for its matchup…