College Football Playoff Picture: Here’s what the 12-team bracket looks like after Week 4

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 4.

First-round byes

1. Texas Longhorns (4-0, projected SEC champion)

Texas’ first game with Arch Manning at QB went about like you’d expect. Manning wasn’t stellar, but the Longhorns dominated Louisiana-Monroe 51-3 as 44.5-point favorites. Quinn Ewers could be sidelined again this week with his strained abdomen as Texas opens SEC play. That shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Mississippi State appears to be the worst team in the conference by a significant margin and just lost starting QB Blake Shapen to a season-ending injury. Texas should have no issue against the Bulldogs before an off week in Week 6.

2. Ohio State Buckeyes (3-0, projected Big Ten champion)

The Ohio State rushing offense is as good as advertised so far this season. The Buckeyes rushed for 380 yards and five TDs on just 31 attempts in a 49-14 win over Marshall. Quinshon Judkins had 14 carries for 173 yards and two scores — one was an 86-yard TD — and TreVeyon Henderson had six carries for 76 yards and two scores. The 35-point margin of victory was the smallest for Ohio State so far this season. The Buckeyes open Big Ten play Saturday night at Michigan State.

3. Miami Hurricanes (4-0, projected ACC champion)

The Miami offense…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-24 13:11:51

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