Week 9 12-team College Football Playoff prediction
By Josh Yourish
No. 3 Penn State and No. 4 Ohio State have been on a collision course for Week 10 at Beaver Stadium since the start of the year and for it to be a top-5 matchup with the inside track to the Big Ten title game on the line, both teams needed to hold serve in Week 9. That proved more difficult than expected with Ohio State narrowly escaping an upset bid by Nebraska in Columbus and Penn State needed backup quarterback Beau Pribula to lead a second-half comeback on the road against Wisconsin.
Still, both the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes passed their final test before meeting in Happy Valley with ESPN’s College Gameday crew in attendance, though injuries could still throw a wrench in this showdown. The status of Penn State quarterback Drew Allar is unknown as the Nittany Lions lost three starters up in Madison on Saturday, and while the Buckeyes have a healthy quarterback, Will Howard has questionable protection with his starting left tackle out for the year and his backup being carted off in the second half against the Cornhuskers.
My working theory for these predictions is that Texas and Georgia and Ohio State and Oregon will both play Round 2 in their respective conference championship games, and both the Longhorns and Buckeyes will avenge early-season losses. However, doubt began to creep in this week with Texas and Ohio State nearly being upset as significant favorites. Without any big movement on the field, I’ll resist the temptation to overreact with my Week 9 predictions.
Rank | Team | Bid | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Texas | SEC Champion | 1 |
2 | Ohio State | Big Ten Champion | 2 |
3 | Miami (FL) | ACC Champion | 3 |
4 | Kansas State | Big 12 Champion | 4 |
5 | Oregon | At-Large | 5 |
6 | Georgia | At-Large | 6 |
7 | Notre Dame | At-Large | 7 |
8 | Penn State | At-Large | 8 |
9 | Clemson | At-Large | 9 |
10 | Texas A&M | At-Large | 11 |
11 | Tennessee | At-Large | 10 |
12 | Boise State | Mountain West Champion | 12 |
The only change to the ranking this week is Texas A&M sliding up one spot from No. 11 to No. 10, ahead of Tennessee. The Vols still have to play Georgia in Athens late in the season, but after beating LSU at home this weekend, the Aggies only remaining ranked opponent is Texas in the final week of the regular season. Mike Elko’s team will almost certainly rebound from a Week 1 loss to Notre Dame to claim an at-large CFP bid, but the SEC title is still on the table as the last remaining unbeaten in the conference.
For Penn State, the most important thing this season as getting to Week 10 undefeated. The Nittany Lions are underdogs against Ohio State, but even if they lose, they'll be favored in every game the rest of the way and have worked their way so far up the rankings that it'll be nearly impossible at 11-1, to keep them out of the 12-team CFP.
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