Playoff Projections Split on Notre Dame, Utah and Indiana
On November 1, two hypothetical College Football Playoff brackets put Miami and Georgia among the top seeds but differed on the other byes and first-round matchups. The selection committee’s first rankings are due Tuesday.
The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season are scheduled for Tuesday, after nine weeks of games and upsets left teams with difficult-to-compare records. Two projections published on November 1 offered different pictures of the 12-team field ahead of the committee’s announcement.
One projection placed undefeated Miami first, followed by Georgia, Utah and BYU. That would give Utah and BYU first-round byes, while Notre Dame would be fifth and Indiana seventh. Its bracket included Boise State as the Group of Six qualifier, with Alabama the first team outside the field. It ranked Texas ninth, Ohio State 10th and Texas Tech 11th.
A bracket based on Sunday’s AP Top 25 instead had Miami, Georgia, Utah and Notre Dame as the top four seeds. Indiana was sixth and BYU seventh; Kentucky would host Alabama, and UCLA would host Boise State. The AP-based projection also included Texas and Ohio State, while Mississippi, Texas Tech and Wake Forest were outside the bracket. Boise State’s place would push out Mississippi, despite the Rebels’ No. 12 AP ranking.
The committee’s rankings will be released weekly until Selection Day on December 6. First-round games are scheduled for December 18 and 19, followed by quarterfinals on December 30 and January 1. The semifinals are set for January 14 and 15, with the championship game scheduled for January 25 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.