Week 14 12-team College Football Playoff prediction
By Josh Yourish
In Week 14, the college football regular season came to an end, but the college football chaos did not. The chaos started in the Big Ten on Saturday with Ohio State coming up short, again, against Michigan. Ryan Day fell to 1-5 all-time against the Wolverines with a 13-10 last-minute loss on a game-winning field goal, and now the Buckeyes, which had been the No. 2 team in the country in every College Football Playoff rankings reveal, are out of the Big Ten title game and a chance at a first-round bye.
With Ohio State falling out, Penn State, which lost to Ohio State in Week 10, slid right into Indianapolis against Oregon. The Nittany Lions finished the regular season 11-1 with a 44-7 win over Maryland while Oregon trounced Washington 49-21, and Indiana pounded Purdue 66-0. All four Big Ten teams will be in the 12-team CFP, with the Ducks and Nittany Lions likely playing for the No. 1 overall seed on Saturday.
The SEC, which had nearly had its CFP count shaved down to two with a disastrous Week 13, could now match the Big Ten with four participants. Georgia escaped an eight-overtime thriller with Georgia Tech on Friday night and on Saturday night, Texas fended off Texas A&M to secure a rematch with the Bulldogs in Atlanta for the SEC title next week. Regardless of the outcome on Saturday, those two are in, and so is Tennessee after beating Vanderbilt. Now, there are two teams for one spot with Alabama and South Carolina both winning their rivalry games after Miami dropped its regular season finale to Syracuse and missed out on the ACC Championship game.
SMU and Clemson will now play for the ACC crown in what is almost certainly a one-bid league. If Clemson wins, SMU may sneak in, but if SMU takes the conference title in its first season in the ACC, then the committee will be forced to decide between the Crimson Tide and the Gamecocks for the final spot.
South Carolina beat Clemson 17-14 on Saturday, but Alabama’s win over Georgia will likely carry enough weight with the committee to prevent the Gamecocks from jumping over them in this week’s rankings. There isn’t much football left to be played, but conference championship games can still provide big shake-ups in the 12-team CFP. For now, here’s my CFP prediction.
Rank | Team | Bid | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oregon | Big Ten Champion | 1 |
2 | Georgia | SEC Champion | 2 |
3 | SMU | ACC Champion | 10 |
4 | Boise State | Mountain West Champion | 4 |
5 | Texas | At-Large | 6 |
6 | Penn State | At-Large | 7 |
7 | Notre Dame | At-Large | 8 |
8 | Tennessee | At-Large | 9 |
9 | Ohio State | At-Large | 1 |
10 | Indiana | At-Large | 11 |
11 | Arizona State | Big 12 Champion | 12 |
12 | Alabama | At-Large | N/R |
The other battle watch is between the Big 12 and the Mountain West for the No. 4 seed and a first-round bye. If Clemson beats SMU, it will muddy the waters and potentially allow both to get byes, but if not, it looks like Boise State is in prime position. The Broncos have been helped out by UNLV climbing into the top 25, and if they win the conference title, will almost certainly remain the fourth-highest-seeded conference champion. The Big 12 is down to Arizona State and Iowa State, and either will have a tough time jumping in front of Boise State. However, if UNLV wins, that opens the door for the Rebels and for Army out of the AAC.
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