The Bishop Gorman football team’s chances at a fifth mythical national championship took a hit on Saturday.
The Gaels, then ranked No. 1 nationally by MaxPreps, lost to Christopher Columbus (Florida) 33-28 in a nationally televised game on ESPN2.
Gorman dropped to No. 8 in MaxPreps’ rankings and is also No. 8 by USA Today. The loss took the control Gorman needed to win a national championship this year out of its hands.
But anything can happen in high school football, so you can’t count out the Gaels from making their way back up towards the top of the rankings.
Here are four things that need to happen for Gorman to stay in the hunt for a national title.
1. Gorman must win out
Gorman cannot afford another loss this season, or else it will continue to slide down the rankings.
The Gaels play at Lone Peak (Utah) at 7 p.m. MT on Friday and at Mater Dei (California) on Sept. 18.
Lone Peak is not ranked in MaxPreps top 100 national rankings. Mater Dei is ranked No. 12 by USA Today and No. 15 by MaxPreps, and that would be the final regular-season game against a highly ranked opponent.
Then Gorman plays 5A/4A private and charter schools on the rest of its regular season schedule before the playoffs.
2. Win Overtime Nationals
When Gorman initially released its 2026 schedule, the bottom of the graphic had a listing for the Overtime Nationals tournament before the schedule graphic was deleted and released again.
A report from Rivals earlier this year said the Overtime Nationals will expand from a one-game event to a four-team national tournament featuring the top teams in the nation.
It’s expected that Gorman will participate in the event in December after the Open Division state championship game.
The tournament will be the Gaels’ chance to possibly play against two more nationally ranked opponents to boost their resume and move up the rankings. Nationally ranked teams from Florida, Arizona and other states could participate in the event.
Last year, St. Frances Academy (Maryland) defeated the top team from Utah Corner Canyon 37-20 in the title game. St. Frances Academy is ranked No. 2 by MaxPreps and No. 3 by USA Today and could likely participate in the event again this year.
3. Teams ahead of Gorman lose
Gorman’s most recent national title in 2023 came after then top-ranked Mater Dei lost, which moved the Gaels to the No. 1 spot.
That will need to happen again this year for each of the teams ranked ahead of Gorman. Here are the teams ranked in order ahead of the Gaels in both MaxPreps and USA Today’s rankings.
MaxPreps: St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida), St. Frances Academy, IMG Academy (Florida), Santa Margarita (California), Buford (Georgia), Columbus and Sierra Canyon (California).
USA Today: St. Thomas Aquinas, IMG Academy, St. Frances Academy, Buford, Santa Margarita, Columbus and Centennial (Corona, California).
Columbus was ranked No. 100 by MaxPreps and jumped to No. 6 and plays St. Thomas Aquinas this Friday. Santa Margarita, Sierra Canyon and Centennial will all play other top-ranked California teams in the regular season and CIF-Southern Section Division I postseason.
4. Gorman’s opponents improve resumes
The strength of Gorman’s opponents will be considered in the final rankings. The Gaels will need all of their out-of-state opponents to have strong resumes and be ranked highly at the end of the season.
For example, if Columbus stumbles and loses multiple games at the end of the year to teams that are not nationally ranked, it makes the defeat last Saturday seem like a bad loss for Gorman.
Lone Peak, which lost to IMG Academy 59-3 on Aug. 21, is not nationally ranked, but should Gorman win this Friday and the Knights reach the Utah 6A title game, it will make the game a better win.
St. John Bosco and Mater Dei will play each other on Oct. 30, and the two teams will play quality opponents in Trinity League play and the postseason. The two teams should remain in the top 25 rankings in the national polls.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
