College football: Imagining a 64-team playoff from 2022 season
By John Scimeca
Results – First Round
East
No. 1 Ohio State 66, No. 16 Gardner-Webb 13
No. 8 Ole Miss 45, No. 9 Coastal Carolina 24
No. 5 UCLA 27, No. 12 Toledo 24 (OT)
No. 4 Florida State 30, No. 13 Samford 3
No. 3 Washington 59, No. 14 Holy Cross 31
No. 6 Troy 21, No. 11 Maryland 7
No. 7 North Carolina 31, No. 10 James Madison 21
No. 2 Alabama 63, No. 15 Yale 0
South
No. 1 Georgia 59, No. 16 Southeastern Louisiana 3
No. 8 South Alabama 34, No. 9 Purdue 20
No. 5 LSU 38, No. 12 Marshall 17
No. 4 Tulane 35, No. 13 Jackson State 24
No. 14 William & Mary 38, No. 3 Southern California 35
No. 11 Louisville 24, No. 6 Mississippi State 17
No. 7 Central Florida 20, No. 10 Minnesota 17
No. 2 Clemson 33, No. 15 Jacksonville State 21
Midwest
No. 1 Michigan 45, No. 16 Saint Francis (PA) 7
No. 9 Air Force 27, No. 8 Pittsburgh 21
No. 5 Texas 35, No. 12 Ohio 26
No. 13 South Dakota State 19, No. 4 Oregon State 17
No. 3 Kansas State 24, No. 14 St. Thomas (MN) 6
No. 6 NC State 27, No. 11 Iowa 10
No. 7 Cincinnati 42, No. 10 Illinois 21
No. 2 Tennessee 56, No. 15 North Carolina Central 7
West
No. 1 TCU 45, No. 16 Abilene Christian 7
No. 8 Fresno State 24, No. 9 Duke 16
No. 12 BYU 41, No. 5 South Carolina 35
No. 4 Oregon 42, No. 13 North Dakota State 28
No. 3 Penn State 20, No. 14 Montana State 17
No. 6 Notre Dame 34, No. 11 Texas Tech 16
No. 7 UTSA 36, No. 10 Boise State 33 (OT)
No. 2 Utah 48, No. 15 Southeast Missouri State 14
No. 14 seed William & Mary manages to pull off the biggest upset of the 2022 64-team College Football Playoff, defeating No. 3 seed Southern California. The Trojans met some high expectations in the regular season but were never able to put together a solid defense under first-year head coach Lincoln Riley. No. 13 seed South Dakota State pulls off another FCS vs. FBS stunner in its first-round defeat of No. 4 seed Oregon State.
Some heavy favorites like No. 3 seed Penn State and No. 5 seed UCLA survive a scare, but at this point, a win is a win. In typical fashion for a tournament bracket, a couple of the final at-large bids like No. 12 seed BYU manage to engineer a first-round upset in order to prove all the naysayers wrong.
While most fans and experts correctly pick the top seeds to roll comfortably, the vexing 8-9 games continue to confound everyone: folks are split between No. 8 seed Fresno State vs. No. 9 seed Duke or No. 8 seed South Alabama vs. No. 9 seed Purdue. The Bulldogs and Jaguars end up representing the mid-major (Group of 5) conferences well in first-round victories, with the reward of facing a top seed in the second round.