Projected College Football Playoff rankings ahead of Week 14 reveal

While waiting for the week 14 rankings to be revealed, here are projections from the AJC sports staff and the national media. These are the predicted final rankings rather than a prediction of what the committee will announce on Tuesday night.

Projected College Football Playoff rankings

Gabe Burns, AJC

Analysis: The SEC’s chaos completely altered everyone’s projections. Here, the conference only has three playoff participants, which seems like too few but also feels fair given the group has cannibalized itself. I’m not ruling out a three-loss team finding a way in, but it’s unlikely. Imagine this 5-12 matchup; the departed PAC-12 smiles down on Oregon vs. Arizona State. Georgia, if it wins its next two, should be the No. 2 seed.

Brandon Adams, AJC & DawgNation

Analysis: There will be plenty of shouting if Alabama makes the field with three losses, but if not the Crimson Tide, who is more deserving? The ACC and Big 12 aren’t relevant enough to get a second team into the field. And in the SEC, South Carolina might be surging to end the season, but the Crimson Tide beat the Gamecocks in October. However, more importantly for Georgia fans is that if the Bulldogs win the SEC, they could earn a favorable path through the Playoff and avoid playing either Ohio State or Oregon, the two top-ranked teams for most of the season, until the national championship game, which is in Atlanta this year.

Cody Chaffins, AJC & DawgNation

Analysis: The SEC chaos may have been too much for a 4th SEC team to make it in. I can see the committee liking the idea of regional matchups of Texas & SMU and Notre Dame and Indiana for first round games.

Mike Griffith, AJC & DawgNation

Analysis: What a difference a week makes in the College Football Playoffs! Suddenly, Ohio State looks like the best team in the Big Ten and the bloom is off Oregon. Suddenly, it looks like Georgia is getting healthy at the right time and is eyeing up a winnable SEC Championship Game matchup with Texas. The ACC and Big 12 will get their slots — the picks here are Miami over SMU in the ACC league title game, and Arizona State over Iowa State in the Big 12 title game. Boise State doesn’t figure to lose again and should grab the Group of Five’s designated playoff slot, and Notre Dame will find its way into the playoff with a road win at USC to close the season.

Jeff Sentell, AJC & DawgNation

Analysis: I’m thinking the conference championship games will yield a little more unpredictability after last weekend. Just more of the logical sort with Ohio State beating Oregon. The more this season unravels, the more It seems like there’s not enough viable teams here to fill the 12-team playoff bracket.

Analysis: Wow... What a weekend for college football. Big winners coming out of this week were UGA and UT, without having to really do anything. However, with various 3-loss SEC teams, I think the ACC ends up grabbing 2 bids.

Connor Riley, AJC & DawgNation:

Analysis: Georgia was a huge winner coming out of this weekend, having now locked up a spot in the SEC Championship game. Perhaps the most interesting dialogue comes with the last at-large spot. Does it go to the ACC runner-up, a 10-2 Clemson team or potentially a 9-3 Alabama team that got smoked at Oklahoma this past weekend? How the committee views a conference championship game loss will be very telling for the final at-large spot.

Bud Elliott, CBS Sports:

Andy Staples, On3:

Heather Dinich, ESPN

Stewart Mandel, The Athletic