College Football Playoff: Projected top 4 after Week 3
After Week 3 of the 2023 college football season, here are our updated College Football Playoff projections.
There were a couple of upsets in Week 3 of the college football season as the Tennessee Volunteers were beaten by Florida. Kansas State was also knocked off by Missouri on a 61-yard field goal.
Both losses could have an impact on the College Football Playoff race, especially Tennessee. People were wondering if the Vols could challenge Georgia in the SEC East, but after getting beat by double digits at the Swamp, it doesn’t seem like Tennessee is College Football Playoff ready.
The top four teams from last week in our projected College Football Playoff rankings struggled to win and looked sloppy. Florida State escaped with a 31-29 win over Boston College.
But does that mean that Florida State falls out of our top four? Nope. The Noles are still in our projected College Football Playoff.
The other contenders though are Ohio State, Washington, Notre Dame, Oregon, and Utah. You still can’t count out Alabama, even though the offense looked wretched on Saturday.
College football fans also shouldn’t sleep on Oklahoma and Ole Miss. Oregon State, Washington State, and UCLA are also undefeated and five-star QB Dante Moore has been lights out for the Bruins.
Plus, we are going to learn a lot in Week 4 of the college football season. Notre Dame will host Ohio State. Florida State will take on Clemson, Oregon will square off against Colorado, Utah vs. UCLA, Alabama vs. Ole Miss, Iowa vs. Penn State, and Oregon State against Washington State.
That means there are seven matchups between top-25 college football teams this week, which could cause some movement, although none of the top four teams will face a top-25 opponent, Florida State will play at Clemson.
With that in mind, here are the updated College Football Playoff projections after Week 3.
College Football Playoff Projection No.4: Florida State
If it wasn’t for the school-record 18 penalties committed by Boston College, Florida State might have suffered an upset.
The Noles weren’t all that impressive. There’s no question about that. Jordan Travis also suffered an injury in the first half but returned and everything seems fine on that front.
Florida State is just a three-point favorite this week against Clemson and this will be the second big test of the season. But the win over LSU, who looked strong this past weekend in a blowout win over LSU, is why the Noles have the edge on teams like USC, Ohio State, and Notre Dame right now.