What a wild weekend of college football. Some teams got the job done in their games while a few teams in position to make the College Football Playoff were upset by some below average teams.
There was even a top five showdown that showed one of the teams maybe doesn’t belong in the 12-team field.
With one more week of the regular season remaining before the conference championships take center stage, here is our projection for the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket, which includes a nice jump for Kirby Smart and Georgia football.
Projected 12-team CFP bracket
Seed | Team |
|---|---|
1 | Oregon |
2 | Texas |
3 | Miami (FL) |
4 | Boise State |
5 | Ohio State |
6 | Penn State |
7 | Notre Dame |
8 | Georgia |
9 | Indiana |
10 | Tennessee |
11 | SMU |
12 | Arizona State |
Key Takeaways
The SEC has seen better weekends. Three SEC teams in contention for a CFP spot all lost to teams .500 and below. This includes Alabama and Ole Miss who now fall outside the 12-team bracket, and Texas A&M who no longer has a chance at an at-large bid. The Rebels and Tide will need a lot of help to make it in the field with three losses, but the Aggies still control their own destiny as they will be SEC Champions with two more wins.
Indiana is a team that everyone has an opinion on. The Hoosiers are 10-1 this season, but they still don’t have a quality win on their resume. Indiana had a chance to prove themselves at Ohio State this weekend, but they got blown out 38-15. Indiana could have fallen outside of the 12-team bracket, but all the losses by the SEC teams should keep Indiana in position to receive an at-large bid with a win in their season finale.
Arizona State takes the place of BYU as the Big 12 champion after the Sun Devils beat BYU 28-23.
With Alabama and Ole Miss out of the 12-team bracket, that has allowed Tennessee and SMU to move into the field for now. SMU can still win the ACC and earn a top four seed, while Tennessee now needs a win against Vanderbilt this weekend to clinch their spot in the playoffs.
Anything is still possible with one more week of the regular season remaining, but if this past weekend taught us anything it’s that anyone can lose at any point. This bracket however will really start to take shape next week as a few more teams will lock themselves in the field with at-large bids if they win this week.