College Football Playoff Top 25 Projections after Championship Weekend
By Zach Bigalke
After the conclusion of the regular season on Championship Weekend, what will the College Football Playoff rankings look like when they come out on Sunday?
Most of the favorites for the College Football Playoff won on Championship Weekend, with all three of the top-four teams that played in conference championship games winning their respective Power Five league titles. Now the selection committee is left to ponder how much weight to give conference titles in their decision-making process.
Two years ago, TCU dropped from third to sixth in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Could Ohio State drop out of the top four after a quartet of decisive championship-game results? If the committee is intent on putting value on winning divisions and conferences, the Buckeyes could see a drop out of the semifinal bracket.
The CFP committee often talks about how there is no such thing as precedent in their methodology. Each week a new list is ostensibly drawn up, even when it looks suspiciously like the previous week’s rankings. But they have to be thinking about how Ohio State got the benefit of the doubt with a thirteenth data point in 2014, and how the Buckeyes were idle this weekend as the only team to beat them won the Big Ten.
Tomorrow we will have a definitive answer. Usually we break down the AP Top 25 each week after the prime-time games have concluded, but this week with the bowl calendar about to be decided we are instead going to try to project how the College Football Playoff selectors will rank their Top 25 when they release their final rankings tomorrow. Click through to see where the top teams in the nation will finish ahead of the postseason. (Rankings are listed as AP/CFP where applicable.)