DRAFT NEWS

Happy New Year! Eight teams remain alive in the hunt for the national title and several future NFL stars will undoubtably be featured performers in the drama to come. Let’s take a look at some of the best draft-eligible prospects for the 2026 NFL Draft that will be playing in the Rose and Sugar Bowl games.

The Alabama - Oklahoma and Miami - Texas A&M games in the first round of the playoffs last weekend featured fantastic head-to-head match-ups on the edges with likely first-round draft picks this coming April facing off in some intriguing one-on-one battles.

The playoffs have arrived! Eight teams take to the field this weekend trying to earn berths to the quarterfinals and a New Year’s Day (or Eve) game. The games this weekend feature several potential first round prospects including QBs Ty Simpson / Alabama (SNS #2 QB), Dante Moore / Oregon (SNS #3 QB), and Carson Beck / Miami, Fl (SNS #5 QB), RB Kewan Lacy / Ole Miss (SNS #3 RB), WRs Germie Bernard / Alabama (SNS #5 WR) and KC Concepcion / Texas A&M (SNS #10 WR)...

Draft-worthy upperclassmen have been sitting out the bowl games for years, fearing an injury suffered in a meaningless bowl game could derail their professional career. This thought process also applies to any player who intends to enter the transfer portal - why risk a bowl game injury and not being able to cash in on a lucrative NIL offer from another school to play in a pointless game? If only the Fighting Irish had declined a bowl bid, it could be written off as Notre Dam

We enter the last three weeks of the regular season and the conference races are picking up steam. Three huge games pit ranked opponents positioning for a playoff berth – (10) Texas at (5) Georgia, (9) Notre Dame at (22) Pittsburgh, and (11) Oklahoma at (4) Alabama. Several potential 2026 NFL Draft first round picks will suit up in those games including QBs Ty Simpson (Alabama) and Arch Manning (Texas), RB Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame), WR Zachariah Branch (Georgia), OT Kadyn P

Last Saturday, draft boards shifted across the NFL when potential top overall selection of the 2026 NFL Draft, QB Drew Allar of Penn State, was lost for the season with a knee injury suffered against Northwestern. Although the injury is quite unfortunate timing for Allar, the truth is that he was already spiraling down draft boards prior to his injury due to his inconsistent play, and this only hastens his fall.

Last weekend, several playoff contenders suffered tough losses and two of the favorites to win the national championship, Texas and Penn State, lost their second game of the year and find their playoff prospects in critical condition with just over half the season remaining. A trio of games lead the national slate this weekend and feature some of the top prospects in the nation including Kadyn Proctor, Parker Brailsford, and Deontae Lawson (Alabama), Brett Norfleet and Zion Y

Last weekend’s games were dramatic, down-to-the-wire affairs that will have a huge influence on the conference title and national playoff races. Oregon, Alabama, and Ole Miss all earned impressive victories last weekend and have an inside track to a playoff berth this December. Three games this Saturday – Miami at Florida State, Vanderbilt at Alabama, and Texas at Florida - will factor into conference title races and feature several potential first-round picks next April.

The first Saturday of the fall brings on one of the best days of conference action on the schedule as three key match-ups in the Big Ten and SEC figure to go a long way in determining conference titles – (6) Oregon at (3) Penn State, (4) LSU at (13) Ole Miss, and (17) Alabama at (5) Georgia. This Saturday is an important day that scouts will be referencing in the ramp up to the 2026 NFL Draft next year.

Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of the summer and simultaneously the official first weekend of college football where all 136 FBS college football teams are in action! There are several intriguing games on schedule this weekend (through Labor Day!) including, Texas at Ohio State, Alabama at Florida State, LSU at Clemson, and Notre Dame at Miami, Fl.

SNS presents the final mock draft in the run up to the 2025 NFL Draft, that kickoffs Thursday evening in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This mock takes a crack at predicting how the 32 teams use their 257 combined picks over three days and seven rounds. SNS utilized the Comprehensive Eligibility Tracking (CET) database, NFL Teams Needs reports, and the SNS Big Board 300 (ALL AVAILABLE HERE AT SNS!) to conduct this simulated draft.