College Football Bowl Projections 2018: Michigan falls out of playoff in Week 13

Rivalry weekend finally upset the college football bowl projections and sent the College Football Playoff picture into confusion.

I’ve been projecting the same playoff field for several weeks now, with Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Michigan holding steady in the committee’s Top 4.

While the top three are still steady, No. 4 Michigan was throttled by Ohio State in Columbus, ending the Wolverines’ hopes of a berth in the College Football Playoff, and knocking them out of the Big Ten Championship race at the same time.

Ohio State’s dominant win over Michigan now poses the question of how far the Buckeyes will jump up in this week’s rankings. Urban Meyer and company came in No. 10, looking increasingly shaky week-by-week, and needing every inch to get past Maryland a week ago. But a 62-39 win over Michigan is sure to elevate Ohio State considerably, but how much will they rise?

The fourth and final playoff spot will currently come down to Oklahoma and Ohio State. The Sooners survived a defense-optional 59-56 win in Morgantown over West Virginia. Lincoln Riley and company get an opportunity to avenge their loss to Texas in the regular season in the Big 12 Championship Game in Dallas next week.

Ohio State will battle Northwestern in Indianapolis. If both teams win, the committee will have a tough choice to make.

The first spot in the playoff appears to be sewn up now that Notre Dame finished the regular season 12-0; the Irish don’t have a conference championship game to worry about, and now can get healthy and scout out potential opponents.

Florida State’s 36-year bowl streak came to an end as they finished up at 5-7 with a blowout home loss to rival Florida. Virginia Tech will have the opportunity to extend their now NCAA leading 26 game bowl streak after a surprising win over Virginia. The win over the Cavaliers set up a conditional game next week against Marshall, where the Hokies will have the opportunity to earn their sixth win in Blacksburg.

There are 82 projected bowl teams currently with only 78 available slots. That means that unfortunately some bowl eligible teams will be left out in the cold. This week, I’m projecting those teams to be Miami (OH), Western Michigan, Wyoming, and UL Monroe.

With championship weekend all that separates us from knowing the full bowl field, where is everyone slated to end up? Will it be Ohio State or Oklahoma breaking into the projected playoff field?

Let’s dive into the bowl projections following Week 13 and find out how the projected bowl field may play out.