There is plenty of shakeup in this week’s CFP projections – as we knew there would be after the Georgia/Alabama game (an instant classic).
There are plenty of people (AP voters – for example) who are moving Alabama into the one seed after their amazing win and Texas’ somewhat of a clunker performance against Mississippi State. I am not one of those people.
Texas still has a roster at least as loaded, if not more, than Alabama and Georgia and I maintain that they have an advantage at quarterback. Certainly, Carson Beck and Jalen Milroe are excellent quarterbacks, but I love the fit of Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning in Steve Sarkisian’s offense.
I am putting Bama in the five seed, which assumes Texas faces Bama in the SEC Championship game and the Horns win. Of course, they could just as easily flop positions if the game goes the other way.
Ohio State is also another obvious choice for the one seed, but if an undefeated team emerges from the SEC then I think they’ll end up at the one seed.
Miami, despite an insanely close game against Virginia Tech, is still the best team in the ACC and will lock up the three seed over the Big 12 champ.
Speaking of the Big 12, I honestly have no clue which team is going to win that league. I put BYU in there for now because they have looked so good in winning their games so far. Can they survive? Who the heck knows? I also considered Iowa State, Utah (despite losing), Kansas State and Arizona. Heck, Colorado is in the running. Even Oklahoma State, which is 0-2 in conference play, could still end up in the conference championship game where all bets are off. At least one team (if not both) with two or even three losses is going to end up playing for the Big 12 title. It is a total crap show.
Georgia drops down to the 10 seed because I am still projecting Texas to beat the Dawgs. A two-loss Georgia team will still make the playoffs but they’re not going to be a high seed.
Ole Miss crapped the bed at home against Kentucky, but they still have a very manageable schedule and going 10-2 is still very much on the table. How they play against Alabama will be a big deal for the CFP committee.
I have had a lot of fun rotating in different teams into the 12-seed. There will come a time where I’ll have to buckle down and start putting serious contenders into that spot. But not this week.
James Madison is scoring at an insane pace and is undefeated with no real world beaters on their schedule. The question is, will an undefeated JMU team be a higher ranked conference champion than, say, a one loss Boise State team who lost a squeaker against Oregon early in the season? Probably not. And if I were taking this 12-seed seriously yet, I would put Boise State in that slot. But let’s show a little love to some of these other teams for now. JMU has been damn good and is still rolling, even after losing their coach, Curt Cignetti, to Indiana.
Speaking of Indiana … we’re going to have to start seriously considering them for a CFP berth (if you can believe it). We’re just not there yet.
