It’s never too early to start thinking about the College Football Playoff field.
With this season’s playoff expanding to 12 teams, we’ll be laying out the projected playoff field each week as the season goes on. Yeah, the official playoff rankings won’t be released until Nov. 5, but that won’t stop us from making our own guesses.
Without CFP rankings as our guide, we’ll mostly rely on the AP Top 25 as our barometer to project the field. The CFP rankings and AP poll typically have many more similarities than differences at the end of the season. Here’s what the provisional playoff field looks like after Week 3.
First-round byes
1. Texas Longhorns (3-0, projected SEC champion)
The Longhorns jumped Georgia atop the AP poll following a big win over UTSA. And Arch Manning could be the team’s starter in Week 4 with Quinn Ewers questionable to play because of an abdominal injury he suffered against the Roadrunners. Manning was fantastic in his relief appearance following Ewers’ injury as he ran for a TD and threw for four others. If he starts on Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe, we’ll get a matchup of top Louisiana high school quarterbacks in Manning and ULM QB General Booty.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes (2-0, projected Big Ten champion)
The Buckeyes had an early off week with no game in Week 3. Ohio State’s second off week of the season comes on Oct. 19, meaning the Buckeyes could play seven straight games to end the season if they make the Big Ten title game. Marshall comes to Columbus in Week 4 as Ohio State caps off non-conference play before a visit to Michigan State in Week 5.
3. Miami Hurricanes (3-0, projected ACC champion)
The Hurricanes have upped their scoring output in each week so far. After scoring 41 against Florida, Miami dropped 56 against Florida A&M and then 62 against Ball State. We have our…
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Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-09-17 13:00:21
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