The 2026 faculty soccer season is about to get totally underway, and expectations are already excessive for a number of groups with School Soccer Playoff aspirations. Nonetheless, historical past means that not each preseason contender will nonetheless be standing when the 12-team area is unveiled.
In every of the primary two seasons of the expanded CFP, a minimum of 4 groups ranked contained in the preseason high 10 of the Coaches Ballot failed to succeed in the postseason bracket. With that in thoughts, USA Immediately’s Jordan Mendoza recognized six groups that might finally fall wanting the hype surrounding them this fall.
His listing consists of applications coping with questions on schedules, teaching adjustments, roster chemistry and whether or not latest success is sustainable. Listed below are the six School Soccer Playoff contenders Mendoza positioned on fraud alert getting into the 2026 season.
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Texas A&M made the School Soccer Playoff final season, however Mendoza questions whether or not the Aggies benefited from a positive path by way of the SEC. Mike Elko returns quarterback Marcel Reed together with a lot of a secondary that helped anchor a powerful protection, but solely two of Texas A&M’s seven convention victories got here in opposition to eventual bowl groups in Missouri and LSU.
The Aggies won’t obtain the identical scheduling break this time round, with Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma all ready late within the season earlier than the annual matchup with Texas. Mendoza believes that the troublesome closing stretch makes it solely cheap to check Texas A&M slipping out of the playoff image regardless of returning loads of expertise from final yr’s workforce.
Ole Miss has a number of causes for optimism after reaching the CFP semifinals final season, starting with the returns of Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy. The bigger query, based on Mendoza, is whether or not Pete Golding can replicate his success over the course of a full season after taking up amid Lane Kiffin’s departure and guiding the Rebels by way of their postseason run.
Ole Miss does profit from a manageable schedule, however Mendoza factors to video games comparable to Florida as potential traps that might derail one other playoff bid. The Rebels clearly possess sufficient expertise to return to the sphere, however USA Immediately views Golding’s first full season in cost as an uncertainty that might finally hold Ole Miss from assembly expectations.
Lane Kiffin has generated loads of consideration since taking up at LSU, notably after placing collectively the nation’s top-ranked switch class headlined by quarterback Sam Leavitt. Mendoza cautions that merely accumulating expertise doesn’t assure quick chemistry, particularly with so many new items coming collectively throughout Kiffin’s first season in Baton Rouge.
LSU has additionally handled important consideration away from the sphere, including one other variable because the Tigers try to right away contend for the SEC championship and a CFP berth. Mendoza nonetheless views Kiffin as the precise coach to ultimately return LSU to nationwide championship competition, however believes Yr 1 might embrace sufficient rising pains to go away the Tigers simply outdoors the playoff area.
Of the six groups on Mendoza’s listing, Texas Tech is the one he believes has the strongest probability to really attain the School Soccer Playoff. The priority as a substitute facilities on whether or not the Purple Raiders can be ready to make noise as soon as they get there, notably after benefiting from a manageable Large 12 schedule and struggling when the competitors elevated throughout their first CFP look.
Texas Tech as soon as once more has a path to rack up victories in a convention that includes appreciable parity, which might put this system in sturdy place by Choice Sunday. Mendoza’s skepticism comes from the chance that one other comparatively straightforward regular-season path will make it troublesome to find out whether or not Texas Tech is really able to beating the game’s elite groups within the postseason.
Michigan made one of many offseason’s greatest teaching strikes by bringing in longtime Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, however Mendoza believes the Wolverines’ schedule might make a direct breakthrough troublesome. Michigan has Oklahoma, Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State all on the slate, making a brutal assortment of video games for a roster that doesn’t enter the season seen among the many Large Ten’s most loaded.
Even when Whittingham helps stabilize this system, Mendoza believes there’s a sensible path towards a 7-5 and even 6-6 end if Michigan struggles in opposition to that troublesome competitors. Whittingham constructed a extremely profitable tenure at Utah with out reaching the School Soccer Playoff, and USA Immediately believes his first season in Ann Arbor might require persistence earlier than Michigan will get again into nationwide competition.
SMU enters the season as one of many main candidates to say a second School Soccer Playoff spot for the ACC behind Miami. Kevin Jennings returns to guide an skilled offense, giving the Mustangs continuity and a quarterback who has already performed in significant video games, however Mendoza stays hesitant after watching SMU let alternatives slip away final season.
The street schedule has been notably difficult for the Mustangs, and there are a number of potential lure video games all through the 2026 slate that might make one other playoff push troublesome. SMU additionally faces Notre Dame on the street in a significant nonconference matchup, and Mendoza believes the Mustangs should show they will persistently deal with video games like that earlier than being trusted as a authentic CFP contender.
