The 2026 college football national championship game brings excitement and questions for seasons to come.
As athletes continue into the new year and finish the 2025-2026 college football season, fans may say that the recent championship game brought some surprises.
Leading up to the national championship, many great teams such as the Oregon. Ducks, the Indiana Hoosiers and the Miami Hurricanes and many more played some hard-fought games to determine their end of season standings
To start, some unexpected teams made it to the playoffs, to the surprise of many, the James Maddison Dukes were one of those teams. Former Quarterback Vad Lee from James Maddison was especially excited for the team.
“We were just not too long ago, typically getting into the FCS playoffs playing for the natty in Frisco, Texas, every year,” said Lee on JMU Sports News.com, “Now we’re playing against the Alabama’s, the Oregon’s of the world. Come on, bro. This is crazy.”
Another team that made an unexpected appearance in the playoffs was Tulane University. Tulane went seven for one and was ranked second in their division, allowing them to make their first playoff appearance in a game against the Ole Miss Rebels.
Dedicated Tulane fan Scott Guerrero went distances most wouldn’t just to catch his team in their first playoff game.
“I flew all the way from Los Angeles, California, just to watch the game on Friday night,” said Guerrero on FoxEightLive.com.. “I just figured if history was gonna be made, I wanted to be here to see it.”
Moving onto some larger schools, teams like Oregon, Indiana, Miami and Ole Miss were all were able to make it to the semifinals. In the Peach Bowl, Oregon faced Indiana and wasn’t able to pull away with the win.
Oregon’s Head Coach Dan Lanning said after the game that although most people will judge the players based on their game performance, he instead is going to judge them based off something more personal.
“Man, you hurt for those guys because the world is going to judge everybody in that room based on the result tonight. I’m going to judge those guys on the kind of fathers they become someday, the kind of husbands they become someday,” Lanning said to KGWNEWS.
Oregon Quarterback Dante Moore said that the loss to the Hoosiers was ultimately caused by Oregon themselves.
“It comes with just reps,” Moore said to KGWNEWS. “But overall…Indiana’s defense is great, but at the end of the day, we beat ourselves.”
Moving onto the championship game, this year, Miami and Indiana faced each other in Miami for the big game. Both teams played very well this season, with Indiana going 15-0 and Miami going 13-3, but only one team had the opportunity to take home the national champion title.
Indiana was able to finish the game ahead by six, with a final score of 21-27. Heisman trophy winning Quarterback Fernando Mendoza said that he was willing to do anything for his team.
