College Football Playoff: Projected top four after Week 1
After the first full week of college football, we take stock of everything that happened and project the top four teams in the College Football Playoff.
Is there anything better than college football? After the first full week of the season, it’s hard to think of anything.
The first week of the 2022 college football season was just a taste of what we’re going to see but we got some excellent games from Thursday through last night.
LSU got upset in an excruciating fashion. Ohio State notched a huge win for its College Football Playoff efforts and despite the loss, Notre Dame isn’t as bad off as one might think.
The same can’t be said for Oregon though. The Ducks are toast. Even if they win the Pac-12, it’s hard to see them getting a College Football Playoff berth after an embarrassing 49-3 loss at the hands of Georgia.
Arkansas ended Cincinnati’s hope of making a return trip with a top-25 win and Florida also impressed, pulling off the biggest upset of college football Week 1 by knocking off seventh-ranked Utah on what ended up as a rough opening weekend for the Pac-12.
A number of top-10 teams such as Alabama, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Clemson (to a lesser extent) beat up on cupcakes. Clemson played an ACC conference game but it was against Georgia Tech and the Tigers didn’t look all that impressive, especially at QB.
With all that in mind, here is a projection of the College Football Playoff after Week 1, as well as a look at some of the top contenders looking to crack the top four.
Peach Bowl (No. 1 Georgia vs No. 4 Clemson)
This is a College Football Playoff projection and not based on just the top four teams, because if that was the criteria it would be Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, and Michigan.
After Week 1 of the college football season, those look like the best four teams, with Clemson and Oklahoma also in the mix. I wouldn’t sleep on USC either. Lincoln Riley isn’t messing around and he certainly isn’t Brian Kelly.
The Bulldogs own the top spot and they should be No. 1 in every college football poll this week after demolishing Oregon 49-3. Michigan whipped Colorado State 51-7 and that game was probably still as competitive as Georgia against the No. 11 team in the preseason AP poll.
As far as Clemson, they are the team I’m projecting to make the top four. In a head-to-head matchup, I’d give Michigan the edge (assuming it starts J.J. McCarthy) but down the road, Clemson has the better playoff hopes.
The Tigers will travel to Notre Dame and a loss to the Irish could make things interesting. Would the committee choose a 12-1 Clemson team (ACC champs) or an 11-1 Notre Dame team with a win over Clemson but no conference title?
It seems obvious but it probably depends on how the game plays out. If Michigan ran the table and its only loss was to Ohio State in Columbus, it would have a similar resume to Notre Dame too, however, the Irish will have the chance to beat Clemson and USC.
Michigan gets Michigan State and Penn State, but that doesn’t seem like enough to get in without going undefeated unless Notre Dame and the other contenders get two losses.