Week 12 of the college football season has wrapped and just one week in the regular season remains. As we turn our attention to the full slate of rivalry showdowns next weekend, we’ll also take a look at an interesting College Football Playoff race coming down to the wire.
Here are our projections for the College Football Playoff following Week 12:
The top of the rankings remain the same from last week with Georgia, Ohio State, and Michigan occupying top three spots in our projections. The Dawgs went on the road and dominated Tennessee on Saturday, clearing their final SEC hurdle before closing the regular season against Georgia Tech next week. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes and Wolverines will head into “The Game” undefeated after winning their respective games on Saturday. After several weeks of gridlock between these two rivals, we’ll finally get to see them clash in the Big House.
For the fourth and final spot, we have Washington jumping Florida State given its signature victories this year. The Huskies get credited for going into a tough road environment in Corvallis and holding off Oregon State 22-20. With that win, UW remains undefeated and has now booked itself a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game. FSU, meanwhile, squashed North Alabama 58-13 in a layup game for Senior Night, but was trailing 13-0 early in the contest. Of course, the big news from that contest was starting quarterback Jordan Travis suffering a devastating leg injury that will most likely end his year and career in Tallahassee. The Noles will roll with backup Tate Rodemaker into their rivalry game at Florida next weekend.
Oregon, Texas, and Alabama are the three teams on standby once again and all three will have a shot at jumping into the top four if they handle business over the next few weeks.
Based on these rankings, here is how the College Football Playoffs would look if the season ended today:
Rose Bowl, January 1, 5 p.m. ET
No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Michigan
Sugar Bowl, January 1, 8:45 p.m. ET
No. 1 Georgia* vs. No. 4 Washington
*The top-ranked team gets to elect where it will play in its semifinal game. In this scenario, Georgia would most likely opt for the Sugar Bowl and make Washington have to travel across the country.