Week 6 was the week of upsets in college football, especially in the SEC. A week after Alabama took down Georgia in Tuscaloosa and jumped to No. 1 in the country, Kalen DeBoer’s Crimson Tide had a massive letdown in Nashville. Vanderbilt took down Bama 40-35, dropping the Tide to No. 7 in this week’s AP Poll.
Texas was on a bye week, avoiding the mayhem, and the Longhorns are now the clear favorites in the conference and back to the No. 1 spot, just ahead of Ohio State, but I still believe that Georgia will win that head-to-head in Austin on October 19, so I struggle to move Steve Sarkisian’s team in the top four of the College Football Playoff prediction as the SEC champs.
Texas hasn’t been tested through its 5-0 start even with a road win over No. 10 Michigan because that looks less and less impressive as each week passes. Michigan was another upset victim in Week 6, losing to unranked Washington in a national championship rematch with their third quarterback, Jack Tuttle.
Georgia got back into the win column, but even if they win out, it’d be tough to pick the Dawgs to beat Alabama in an SEC rematch. I’m willing to write this Alabama loss as an aberration, but there is certainly a lot that Mike Bobo and Carson Beck can glean from the way that Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia dismantled Kane Wommack’s defense.
If Georgia does lose to Alabama a second time in the SEC title game, even with wins over Texas, Ole Miss, and Tennessee on its resume, it’ll be hard for the CFP committee to rank Georgia at No. 5. That’s why Georgia is taking a bit of slide this week, but the team making the biggest drop is Josh Heupel’s Volunteers.
In Week 6, Arkansas held Heupel and his star sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava off the scoreboard for the entire first half. That was the first time a defense did that to Tennessee since Heupel took over in 2021. Iamaleava has shown flashes of brilliance, but the 6-foot-6 former five-star has struggled without the help of play-action. If defenses can take away his explosive plays in the passing game while limiting Dylan Sampson on the ground, as the Razorbacks did on Saturday, the Vols don’t have many answers. Still, Tennessee’s defense is dominant enough to keep them narrowly in the Top 12.
Oh, and Texas A&M finally revealed Missouri for the frauds that they were. So now we can stop pretending that the Tigers had a real shot at the playoff.
Here’s a look at my predicted College Football Playoff bracket after Week 6.
Rank | Team | Bid | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ohio State | Big Ten Champion | 2 |
2 | Alabama | SEC Champion | 1 |
3 | Miami (FL) | ACC Champion | 3 |
4 | Utah | Big 12 Champion | 4 |
5 | Oregon | At-Large | 7 |
6 | Notre Dame | At-Large | 10 |
7 | Georgia | At-Large | 6 |
8 | Texas | At-Large | 8 |
9 | Penn State | At-Large | 9 |
10 | Clemson | At-Large | 11 |
11 | Tennessee | At-Large | 5 |
12 | Boise State | Mountain West Champion | 12 |
While there was chaos in the SEC, the Big Ten simply revealed its true top-tier teams. No. 10 Michigan dropped its second game of the year, and No. 11 USC lost in Minnesota, dropping the Lincoln Riley’s Trojans out of the top 25. Ohio State, Oregon, and Penn State are the three best teams in the second-best conference in the country. The Buckeyes will run the table, taking out the Ducks and Nittany Lions along the way, but all three should figure into the playoff picture.