We've seen a lot of 'good' throughout the 2026 college football season thus far. First year head coaches like Bob Chesney and Will Stein have hit the ground running. The playoff and Heisman trophy race are starting to sort itself out and we're starting to see the 12-team field begin to take shape. But one thing that we know at this point in the year, the season is far from over.

Several teams still have the opportunity to prove themselves or seal their fate. There have been a lot of questions answered already this season, but there's still major questions remaining. The outlook for teams in South Bend, Columbus and Austin depend on how their handle their remaining slate, over come injuries and how they finish. These are my biggest remaining questions for the 2026 college football season through the halfway point.

CAN NOTRE DAME WIN THE BIG ONE?

On one hand, BYU beating the Irish signified that the Cougars are ready to compete at the highest level and can hang with the top teams in the country. On the other hand, it poses a lot of questions for Notre Dame. Over the last two seasons, they're 0-3 against the three best teams that they've played. A combination of vanilla offense and poor defense has led to them dropping games against Miami, Texas A&M and now BYU. Can they win the big one?

One of the reasons the Irish were left out of the playoffs last season was their inability to win 'the big one' on their regular season schedule. Beat one of Miami or A&M and you're in. This season, they put themselves behind the eight ball by losing in Provo, but now have the opportunity to right that wrong on November 7 when the No. 1 ranked Miami Hurricanes comes to town. If they win, and handle business the rest of the way, they're in. If not, their playoff hopes, once again, look bleak and is out of their control.

WILL TEXAS GET THINGS TURNED AROUND?

One of the premier teams, on paper, coming into this season was the Texas Longhorns. Quarterback Arch Manning was headed into his second year under center, defensive end Colin Simmons entered the year as one of the nation's premier defenders and portal additions like Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smother and Rasheem Biles instilled a lot of confidence in Austin. Unfortunately, despite the outlook of their roster changing, the outlook of their season is starting to look eerily familiar to 2025.

After starting the season 4-0 with a major win over Ohio State in Week 2, the Longhorns have lost two straight to unranked opponents. They lost to Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout 27-24 and lost to Florida this past weekend 27-24. In both games, Texas blew a multi-score lead and couldn't finish. This weekend, they host the Ole Miss Rebels, the No. 7 team in the country. This is their opportunity to get things turned around. If not, their remaining schedule doesn't have a lot of guaranteed wins on it.

CAN OHIO STATE FINISH WITHOUT SAYIN?

Death, taxes and the Ohio State Buckeyes being ranked somewhere in the Top 10. That's not a shot at the Buckeyes, they've earned it over the last couple of seasons with their performance on the field. This past weekend, they picked up a monster win over Indiana in Bloomington and ended the longest active win streak in college football. Unfortunately, that game came at a great cost with quarterback Julian Sayin getting injured. The 2nd-year quarterback will likely be out for quite some time.

Ohio State is riding a five game win streak, but without their No. 1 guy under center, matchups against USC on the road, Oregon at home, Northwestern at home, Nebraska on the road and Michigan at home look significantly more daunting. We've seen Ohio State fight through significant quarterback injuries in the past. But can the run game support the offense like it did in 2014? That will be the million dollar question.

WHICH SEC TEAMS MAKE THE PLAYOFF PUSH?

As much bias at the SEC has sometimes, heading into the second to last week of October, there's only two SEC teams ranked in the Top 10. The Georgia Bulldogs are 5th in the country while the Ole Miss Rebels are 7th. Teams like Tennessee (11th), Kentucky (12th) and Alabama (13th) are knocking on the door, but the playoff race remains wide open in the conference that 'just means more'.

Ole Miss and Georgia still have to square off on November 7, Alabama still has to play LSU and Auburn in the Iron Bowl, Tennessee and Kentucky still have to play and the Vols host the LSU Tigers two weeks later. After their matchup with Tennessee, the Wildcats still have to host the Florida Gators and the Louisville Cardinals with a road contest against Missouri in between. The playoff race in the SEC is wide open and whoever makes it into the playoff field this year from the Southeastern Conference will have earned it.

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