Protection issues along the offensive line is an unexpected weakness and Oregon is fortunate to be unbeaten despite both of its first two games coming down to fourth-quarter execution as a heavy favorite. Pamela Maldonaldo breaks down the game, spread, total and player props to watch. Notre Dame defensive lineman Junior Tuihalamaka said his team has watched “a lot of film” of Michigan’s upset win over Ohio State back in November. While no major decisions were made regarding the 12-team College Football Playoff format at a meeting Sunday, “tweaks” for 2025 haven’t been ruled out.
College football Bottom 10 after Week 4: Clemson’s fall continues
Playoff expansion, seeding and play-in games are among the topics this week when the Big Ten and SEC meet. While the idea is in the very early stages, the Big Ten’s proposal for a 24- or 28-team College Football Playoff eliminates conference title games and offers a large number of auto bids for all four power leagues. Tulane remained the only Group of 5 team ranked this week, at No. 24.
- They still have two top-25 victories — against Notre Dame and Penn State — enough to keep them ahead of rival Michigan.
- The heavyweight battles brought the goods, but there were even more thrillers.
- The College Football Playoff is moving to a straight seeding model, giving the top four teams by seed a first-round bye starting next season.
- While it’s difficult to pull hard takeaways from a small sample size, the Ducks are one perceived elite who haven’t passed the eye test thus far.
But the Buckeyes still have a first round home playoff game with a chance to earn a rematch with Oregon, who they lost to by one point in October. Winners of those four games would move on to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at bowl sites including the Fiesta (Dec. 31), Rose (Jan. 1), Sugar (Jan. 1) and Peach (Jan. 1). Among notable tie-ins in the expanded playoff, the Sugar Bowl automatically gets the highest-ranked SEC or Big 12 teams in the quarters, so top-seeded Georgia would be playing in New Orleans. Oregon coach Dan Lanning is advocating for college football to adopt an NFL-style schedule with limited open weeks, no long layoffs for playoff teams and a season that wraps on Jan. 1. SMU, in its first season in the ACC, made it to the conference championship game after finishing the regular season with an undefeated record in conference. Clemson has a chance to reappear in these playoff projections in the coming weeks.
College Football Playoff selection show: Playoff bracket, rankings
As for seven projected at-large selections, the selection committee will get their pick of various Power Four. Heavyweights graced with competitive schedules whose finishes in the elite-tier of their respective conferences will dictate placement. Not necessarily following this week’s updated polls, I’m expecting the SEC and Big Ten to gobble up all of those spots at this junction. The Bulldogs are coming off victories over No. 13 Ole Miss (52-17) this past weekend and No. 9 Missouri (30-21) on Nov. 4, bolstering a schedule that had been lacking quality wins. They will have an opportunity to enhance their strength of schedule Saturday when they face No. 18 Tennessee in Knoxville. Alabama, which finished 11th in the CFP rankings, misses the playoff after Clemson won the ACC championship to earn an auto-bid in the playoff, despite being ranked 16th.
Several multi-loss teams within this Week 3 projection are expected from the SEC and Big Ten given the schedule challenges many of these quality squads will endure. Georgia-Texas, Ohio State-Oregon and Ole Miss-Georgia are just a few of the games we could see more than once in the coming months. It hardly matters at this point whether Ohio State or Michigan is ranked higher, since the two teams will play in Ann Arbor on Nov. 25. But before their rivalry game, Ohio State hosts Minnesota on Saturday and Michigan plays at Maryland. As of now, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is suspended for both games, but he chicken road game has an injunction hearing set for Friday to plead his case to get the suspension lifted. Ohio State’s loss to Michigan in the last week of the regular season knocked them out of the Big Ten Championship game and contention for a first round bye.
- Alabama and Miami are the first two teams out of the 2024 College Football Playoff.
- Here are all the betting odds, lines, spreads, totals and early picks for the College Football Playoff national championship game.
- While the idea is in the very early stages, the Big Ten’s proposal for a 24- or 28-team College Football Playoff eliminates conference title games and offers a large number of auto bids for all four power leagues.
- No two-loss team has ever appeared in the playoff, but that will change in the expansion.
Ranking the top freshmen so far in the 2025 college football season
The first round of the College Football Playoff is set to begin on Friday, December 20 in South Bend, Indiana, where No. 7 Notre Dame will host an in-state rivalry match-up with No. 10 Indiana. With four top-10 teams losing, Week 5 offered a reminder of just how little we know so early in a season. With key wins by Ole Miss, Alabama and Oregon, the bowl picture gets its biggest shakeup yet. The content on this site is for entertainment purposes only and CBS Sports makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the information given or the outcome of any game or event. This site contains commercial content and CBS Sports may be compensated for the links provided on this site. While it’s difficult to pull hard takeaways from a small sample size, the Ducks are one perceived elite who haven’t passed the eye test thus far.
College-reform bill could generate extra billions by allowing conferences to pool their TV rights
Florida State remained at No. 4 after a hard-fought win over rival Miami. There was some thought Washington might move ahead of the Seminoles because it has three top-25 victories following Saturday’s triumph over No. 22 Utah, compared to one for the Seminoles (a Week 1 victory over No. 15 LSU). “Georgia showed their dominance on offense and on defense against a really strong Mississippi offense,” CFP chair Boo Corrigan said on ESPN’s rankings release show Tuesday night. “So in looking at it and the résumé and everything combined, we thought Georgia was the No. 1 team this week.” The four highest-ranked conference champions earn first-round byes in the 2024 College Football Playoff.
The Tigers turned back a season-opening loss to Georgia over the weekend with an annihilation of Appalachian State and they’re open in Week 3 prior to hosting NC State. Dabo Swinney’s group should be favored in every regular-season matchup the rest of the way with Florida State falling apart and Virginia Tech not playing as well as advertised. This would leave the ACC and Big 12 as one-bid leagues, unless there’s a one-loss representative from one of those conferences who could trump others for one of the final spots. While Miami is the clear-cut frontrunner at this point in the ACC, the title race in the Big 12 is wide open with Iowa State possessing a notable ranked win over Iowa before league play begins. Early returns in the College Football Playoff race suggest the SEC will dominate the first year of expansion after the league placed six teams inside the top seven nationally in this week’s updated AP Poll.
Despite a painful loss to Ohio State in the CFP finale, Notre Dame has set a foundation for more success under Marcus Freeman. As conference commissioners meet in Dallas on the heels of the big SEC-Big Ten meeting, here’s what to expect. Alabama and Miami are the first two teams out of the 2024 College Football Playoff. Penn State gets the coveted first-round home game on the back of quarterback Drew Allar and dynamic tight end Tyler Warren. Penn State scored 37 points against No. 1 Oregon in the Big Ten title game. Tennessee makes the College Football Playoff for the first round in program history on the back of a top-five scoring defense and electric running back Dylan Sampson.
Arkansas fires Sam Pittman in middle of 6th season, names Bobby Petrino interim head coach
Here’s a rundown of all prior College Football Playoff championship games. Opening-round matchups at campus sites based on this Week 3 projection features Texas State at Texas, USC at Ole Miss, Tennessee at Oregon and Penn State at Alabama. Texas State-Texas would be a coveted ticket between two programs a short trip away down Interstate 35, while Lane Kiffin meeting one of his former programs provides a plethora of intrigue. Previewing the national championship with X factors and keys to winning for each team. “Florida State, really good offensively, have been really good defensively,” Corrigan said. “Don’t undersell the Miami-Florida State rivalry as well, and that’s been going on for years. … We thought Florida State was the dominant team in the game.”
Jan. 9
No. 6 Penn State will play No. 11 SMU for the third time in program history, and the first since 1978. No. 12 Clemson will play No. 5 Texas for the first time in program history. A game between two big name brands with a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line. No. 9 Tennessee and No. 8 Ohio State will play for just the second-time ever, and the first since the 1996 Citrus Bowl. Get the AP Top 25 college football poll delivered straight to your inbox every week with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. After an exhilarating slate of games, our college football experts break down key performances from Week 5.
Seeding, other bowls and conference title games among the topics when power brokers meet this weekend. Both of these teams finished the regular season 11-1 with a statement win over a rival in the last week of the regular season. No. 7 Notre Dame scored 49 points on the road in a two-touchdown win over USC, while No. 10 Indiana embarrassed in-state rival Purdue, 66-0.
He said at his news conference earlier this week that he planned to speak at the hearing. The Wolverines stayed at No. 3 after their first top-25 win of the season, over Penn State; the Nittany Lions dropped two spots to No. 12. They still have two top-25 victories — against Notre Dame and Penn State — enough to keep them ahead of rival Michigan. Georgia overtook Ohio State for the No. 1 spot in the newest College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night after back-to-back wins over top-25 opponents. ET, the CFP top 25 rankings and the bracket will be revealed within the first 30 minutes.