Sometimes the chaos arrives in college football on weeks where you least expect it. Other times, you’ll look back at a great weekend full of appealing matchups and all you see is the wreckage from what transpired between the lines.
We certainly got the latter in Week 5, which saw conference title races upended, the playoff chase shift into high gear and a host of national title contenders wind up looking extremely mortal.
Chief among these might be Penn State, which not only suffered another big-game loss under James Franklin, but now must also navigate a schedule which does not feature many opportunities for racking up big wins. At this point, even splitting their games against Ohio State and Indiana may only give the Nittany Lions a single Top 25 victory for their résumé—which won’t help in the eyes of the committee compared to some teams that will be in the mix for at-large spots at either 10–2 or 9–3.
The flip side to the struggles from the likes of Penn State is the SEC’s depth presenting an opportunity for the league to live up to its slogan and have the CFP just mean more (teams). Right now, Alabama has the inside track to Atlanta (and a quarterfinal bye) while Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and, yes, even Texas, all have a clear path to making the field even if they beat each other up a bit.
Factoring in all of the results so far, forecasting the rest of the season out and then putting our selection committee hats on, here’s the latest updated College Football Playoff projection and which matchups we could see this December.
College Football Playoff projected rankings after Week 5Ohio StateAlabamaMiamiOregonGeorgiaTexas TechOle MissTexas A&MIndianaIowa StateTexasTulane
