Jalen Milroe #4 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates after his team defeated the Georgia Bulldogs at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 28, 2024 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
There was a college football playoffs stunner this week when the college football playoffs committee announced the latest rankings and projected 12 team playoff field. It appears Alabama, who seemed to be on the outside looking in, is in the field. And Miami is out, as of today. There are still conference championships to be played this weekend. Then the final poll and the final playoff field will be set.
Committee chair Warde Manuel says that the teams that have no more games remaining (ie: teams not playing in conference championship games) projected to be in the playoff field are safe. That is because there are no more data points to consider.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS STUNNER
College Football Playoffs Stunner: That means Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana, and Alabama are in, right? Undefeated Oregon and its Big Ten Championship opponent #3 Penn State are in no matter what. That game will be played for playoff seeding. Same for #2 Texas and #5 Georgia in the SEC Title game, right? What if Georgia gets blown out and picks up a third loss? That's a conversation for next week. But we will presume both schools are in the playoffs.
Will #8 SMU be punished if it loses the ACC Championship game vs #17 Clemson? Probably not, but who knows?
But, by and large it seems like 11 of the 12 spots, or 92 percent of the field is done. Only a couple of scenarios matter Saturday. If #10 Boise State loses to #20 UNLV in Friday's Mountain West Championship, the winner of Saturday's Big 12 Championship game between #15 Arizona State and #16 Iowa State would likely be the 4th highest rated conference champion and receive a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
Discuss the college football playoffs stunner and projected seedings on Craig Shemon and Company every weekday from 2-6pm on ESPN Southwest Florida.
