Week 7 12-team College Football Playoff prediction

From the moment that Penn State’s 2024 schedule was released, two games were circled as the biggest, Week 10 at home against Ohio State, and a Week 7 trip to LA to play USC. Well, so far, James Franklin’s team is 1-0 in those games, beating USC 33-30 in overtime on Saturday, and the Nittany Lions are the No. 3 ranked team in the Week 7 AP Poll at 6-0 heading into a well-deserved bye week. 

It was a bit of an ugly start for the Nittany Lions and with three interceptions from Drew Allar, Penn State nearly suffered its first loss of the season, one that would’ve made the Ohio State game a must-win to get into the 12-team College Football Playoff. However, after Allar and Julian Fleming saved Penn State twice on fourth down in the fourth quarter and Ryan Barker knocked in the game-winning kick, Franklin has the cushion he needs heading into that rivalry game at Beaver Stadium, assuming The Nittany Lions can handle the rest of their business against Wisconsin, Washington, Purdue, Minnesota, and Maryland. 

The other big game in the Big Ten also occurred on the West Coast, with Ohio State visiting Oregon. The Ducks pulled out a thriller 32-31 with Dan Lanning’s third and fourth down aggressiveness paying off in a huge way. Still, even after beating the favorites in the Big Ten, and in my opinion the most talented roster in the country, Oregon and Ohio State have identical odds of winning the conference. That’s because the Buckeyes can set up a rematch in the Big Ten title game if they win out and beat Penn State. I’d pick Ohio State in the rematch, so I’m leaving Ryan Day’s team as my Big Ten champs in this prediction. 

While the Big Ten has established a clear top three with Oregon, Ohio State, and Penn State, the SEC is in a state of flux. Texas is still the No. 1 team in the country after pounding Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry, but Alabama struggled with South Carolina a week after losing to Vanderbilt, coming off a loss to Arkansas, Tennessee went to overtime with Florida, Georgia allowed 31 points to Mississippi State in a win, and Ole Miss lost its second game of the year, this time to LSU. Now, the Tigers are firmly in the CFP picture, ranked No. 8 in this week’s poll. 

My concern rankings for the SEC contenders from most concerns to not worried at all, goes like this:

• Tennessee
• LSU
• Georgia
• Alabama
• Texas

Oh, and there’s Texas A&M, still atop the conference with an undefeated SEC record and a close loss to Notre Dame on its resume. Ole Miss is eliminated with its two losses, and Tennessee is pretty close with its back-to-back abysmal offensive performances, I’m not sure Nico Iamaleava can save this season, so the final SEC spot in the CFP will likely come down to LSU or Texas A&M, and luckily they play in two weeks. I’m planning on taking the Aggies in that game, so I’ll predict that they sneak into the CFP. 

The rest of the rankings are business as usual, and by that I mean, the ACC is a two-bid league with two clear top teams in Miami and Clemson, Boise State is the top Group of 5 powerhouse, and the Big 12 is absolute chaos. Iowa State remained undefeated with a win at West Virginia this week, an impressive hurdle for Matt Campbell’s team to clear. 

At the moment, both Iowa State and BYU are still undefeated, but a two or three-loss Big 12 Champion is not off the table. In that case, Boise State, or even an undefeated Army or Navy team could take the No. 4 seed as the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion, leaving the Cyclones, the Cougars, or whoever else comes out of the Big 12, as the No. 11 or No. 12 seed.