With the college football season already in Week 11, the race to the postseason begins to truly heat up. On Tuesday night, the first official College Football Playoff rankings were released from the selection committee. The projected bracket provides some clarity for the 12-team CFP field, but of course, nothing is yet set in stone.
There are some interesting trends to note here in relation DraftKings Sportsbook’s odds for each team to make the final College Football Playoff field. Here’s a breakdown comparing the first rankings and brackets to our own numbers.
College Football Playoff rankings, odds
The initial College Football Playoff rankings will assuredly create plenty of discussion over the coming days. Here’s a look at the projected bracket with details on the DraftKings Sportsbook odds for each team below.
As the first projected bracket currently stands, the four teams with a bye are Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M and Alabama. The first four come as no surprise with undefeated records for each while playing in Power Four conferences. Alabama is the only one-loss team of the top four, but beat No. 5 Georgia earlier this season. All of the teams with projected byes are -1000 odds or are even stronger favorites to make the College Football Playoff.
Next up are Georgia, Ole Miss, BYU, Texas Tech, Oregon and Notre Dame. This is where things begin to look interesting. Of these programs, five are favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook to make the final field — Ole Miss (-1000), Georgia (-500), Notre Dame (-370), Texas Tech (-300) and Oregon (-220). However, that’s where the minus odds end on the leaderboard.
BYU, the current Big 12 leaders, hold +160 odds to make the CFP and slot in as the No. 7 seed. The upcoming week’s matchup will undoubtedly send a shockwave of an impact throughout the rankings since the Cougars play against Texas Tech for the top of the conference standings. BYU enters Week 11 8-0 overall with a 5-0 record in Big 12 play, whereas the Red Raiders are 8-1 with a 5-1 conference record. The outcome in Lubbock, Texas may very well decide whether either of these teams make the B12 championship as well as the greater tournament as well.
Following the top-10 outlined above, the 11th and 12th spots in the College Football Playoff are sure to create intrigue over the coming weeks. Virginia and Memphis take the last two postseason seeds with the former currently No. 12 in the AP Poll at 8-1 with a 5-0 record as the ACC leaders. They potentially earn a postseason spot as one of the four conference champions if they remain atop the standings and slot in as the No. 11 seed due to their status as the fourth highest-ranked conference winner — the Cavaliers come in at +400 to make the final CFP field with the 19th-best odds. In their own conference, they’re competing with Louisville (+190), Georgia Tech (+250) and Duke (+320).
The final spot in the initial bracket projection hails from the Group of Five’s American Conference. The Memphis Tigers are 8-1 overall and 4-1 in their own conference at second in the standings behind only Navy. However, Navy suffered its first loss this past weekend to North Texas, a team with an identical record to the Tigers but without a head-to-head game to decide a potential tiebreaker in the conference. As things currently stand, Memphis slots in at 18th on the DraftKings Sportsbook leaderboard with +350 odds to make the College Football Playoff, though fellow AAC programs South Florida (+230) and UNT (+250) are further ahead where odds are concerned.
With the 12 teams in the initial bracket covered, a couple of programs are left on the outside looking in. Currently, the first two teams out are Texas and Oklahoma, a pair of SEC sides that fall 11th and 12th in the committee’s initial rankings. Both are 7-2 and have suffered a couple of ugly losses this season, but the Longhorns hold the 10th-best odds of making the final field at +180 on DraftKings Sportsbook. Meanwhile, the Sooners are 17th at +350 as well.
The only programs inside the top 20 via DraftKings Sportsbook’s odds not yet mentioned are Sun Belt contender James Madison (+300) and SEC upstart Vanderbilt (+450). While the former may see an outside shot at earning a Group of Five bid with a 7-1 record and unbeaten 5-0 conference standing, it may take a significant effort for the Dukes to make it in. Finally, the Commodores suffered a close loss to Texas this past weekend, so the Longhorns may have crushed Vandy’s hopes with that result.
