There's a new #1 team in the 12-team College Football Playoff rankings prediction after Week 3
Week 3 of the college football season brought us several fun games, and despite no titans falling, some of those games absolutely had big impacts on the playoff race. As a result, there are some major changes in the Top-4 since last week's playoff rankings prediction.
2024 College Football Playoff Predictions after Week 3
Here are the updated projected playoff rankings after Week 3's action...
Rank | Team | Why They Are Here | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1. | Texas | SEC Champion | 5. |
2. | Ohio State | Big Ten Champion | 2. |
3. | Miami | ACC Champion | 3. |
4. | Kansas State | Big 12 Champion | NR |
5. | Georgia | At-Large | 1. |
6. | Ole Miss | At-Large | 6. |
7. | Penn State | At-Large | 7. |
8. | Alabama | At-Large | 8. |
9. | USC | At-Large | 9. |
10. | Oregon | At-Large | 11. |
11. | Utah | At-Large | 4. |
12. | Northern Illinois | Highest Ranked G5 Champion | 12. |
Dropped Out - Oklahoma State (previously 10th)
Texas surges, Georgia shows first sign of weakness, and fluidity in the Big 12
I've got a new #1 in my playoff projections. The Texas Longhorns take the top spot after following up their dominant win over Michigan by boat-racing UTSA. They've looked like the most complete team in the country, and own an impressive road win. Now if QB Quinn Ewers misses extended time, perhaps things get dicey. But in the meantime, Arch Manning seems to be more than ready to fill-in.
Of course beating UTSA wouldn't have changed the rankings if my previous #1 had rolled like they were expected to. Georgia went into Lexington as heavy favorites over Kentucky, but they didn't play like it. The Bulldogs trailed the Cats 9-6 entering the 4th quarter. They'd then grab the lead with a TD and hold on for a 13-12 win thanks to some questionable late-game management by UK HC Mark Stoops and an incredibly fortunate fumble recovery, but it wasn't pretty. A win is a win, and UGA has had a game like this nearly every year under Kirby Smart. But for now, they fall out of the First Round Bye down to the #5 spot.
We had another new team move into the Top-4 of the rankings, and this team wasn't even included in the any of my previous playoff predictions. Hello, Kansas State. The Wildcats dominated a ranked Arizona team 31-7 Friday night to move to 3-0. That's arguably the best win by any team in the Big 12, and as a result, they've earned the league's automatic bid for the time being, replacing Utah.
And with that you see the fluidity that exists within the Big 12. Utah drops all the way down to 11th despite an undefeated start because without an auto-bid, it's hard to rank them above any other at-large teams. And previous #10 Oklahoma State falls out of the rankings entirely, again, despite a 3-0 start. The reality is that the margins are thin for Big 12 contenders, but that makes the playoff race for this league arguably the sport's most exciting.
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