College Football Playoff bracket: Complete playoff picture after latest rankings

Posted by author November 13, 2024 Football

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It only took one week for the first College Football Playoff rankings to be completely flipped on its head.

Just a few days after the selection committee set the tone for the rest of the regular season, Georgia was upset by Mississippi and Miami suffered its first loss thanks to Georgia Tech. As a result, the currently projected top 12 teams to make the newly expanded College Football Playoff was shaken up in the second release of rankings. In this week’s edition, we see how the automatic byes for conference champions really affected seeding, and who could end up having to play a first-round game on the road.

So what does the playoff look like at the moment? Here’s a look at the current bracket heading into Week 12.

College Football Playoff bracket

First round

Higher seed would be home team

No. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 12 Boise State
No. 6 Penn State vs. No. 11 Mississippi
No. 7 Indiana vs. No. 10 Alabama
No. 8 Tennessee vs. No. 9 Notre Dame

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Oregon (Big Ten leader) vs. winner of Tennessee/Notre Dame
No. 4 seed Miami (ACC leader) vs. winner of Ohio State/Boise State
No. 3 seed Brigham Young (Big 12 leader) vs. winner of Penn State/Mississippi
No. 2 seed Texas (SEC leader) vs. winner of Indiana/Alabama

College Football Playoff format

The biggest victim of this week’s rankings is Georgia. Even though the Bulldogs are ranked No. 12, they wouldn’t qualify for the playoff at the moment because Boise State would be the fifth conference champion, and therefore gets an automatic spot into the playoff.

On the other hand, Miami still keeps a first-round bye because they are in position to win the ACC, even though it is coming off a loss. Big Ten teams Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana also fall back on seeding as a result of the Hurricanes and BYU getting the first round byes.