College Football Playoff bracket: What 12-team field looks like after latest CFP Rankings release

The latest College Football Playoff Rankings saw plenty of change among the at-large spots after a chaotic Week 11 slate. Three teams featured in the previous bracket were cycled out of the field during Tuesday’s rankings reveal after getting upset to bring in an entirely new round of competitors. 

BYU was the most notable casualty, as the Cougars lost their spot after a 29-7 loss on the road against Texas Tech. BYU was still listed as one of the first teams out, so there is a path back to the playoff if the Cougars finish the year on a high note. 

The same cannot be said for Virginia, which plummeted from projected ACC champion to out of the race entirely after it suffered a home loss to unranked Wake Forest. Memphis was supplanted by fellow American Conference power South Florida as the Group of Six’s representative, as well. 

Though the lower rungs of the bracket went through some change, the projected first-round byes remained entirely unscathed. Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M and Alabama still occupied the first four seeds.  

This bracket is a projection heading into Week 12. Here is a look at how the College Football Playoff bracket looks after the second CFP Rankings release. 

ACC still in the hunt for multiple bids 

The selection committee choosing to rank Miami first among ACC teams and subsequently projecting the Hurricanes as the conference’s champion is an odd choice. The chances that Miami actually makes the ACC Championship Game are next to zero. 

The Hurricanes already have two losses in conference play, which puts them behind the five one-loss ACC teams atop the league’s standings. In the event that chaos reigns, Miami would still lose head-to-head tiebreakers against Louisville and SMU. 

This does mean that the ACC’s hopes for multiple bids are still alive. It’s clear that, regardless of its ACC championship status, the committee thinks highly of Miami. The Hurricanes also have a head-to-head advantage against another potential bubble team in Notre Dame, which remained at No. 9 Tuesday. 

There’s a world in which the ACC champion — be it Georgia Tech, Virginia, Louisville or a team outside the rankings — and Miami both make the cut come December. 

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Texas Tech pushing for a bye 

Texas Tech jumped one spot to No. 6 following its monumental rout of BYU. While a miniscule move may not seem significant in a vacuum, the Red Raiders vaulted over Ole Miss and came one step closer to securing a first-round bye. 

If Texas Tech can finish the regular season undefeated and cap things off with a Big 12 championship, it will have a case to secure a top-three spot at the very least. The current top four consists of two SEC teams and two Big Ten teams. 

Only half of that field can actually win a championship. A 12-1 Texas Tech with a Big 12 title would be a stronger candidate for a top-four seed than an SEC or Big Ten school that lost in their championship game. 

Vanderbilt hanging around 

Vanderbilt’s had a tough November. The Commodores suffered a major setback on Nov. 1 when they lost to Texas and then got taken to the brink in a Week 11 showdown against an Auburn team that is 1-6 in conference play. 

Despite the latest streak of less-than-desirable results, though, Vanderbilt actually moved up two spots to No. 14 in the latest poll. Given that the Commodores rank ahead of a couple of projected conference champions, they’re still a little outside of the “first team out” range, but they are well within shouting distance of an at-large spot. 

If they can take care of business against Kentucky and No. 23 Tennessee to finish with a 10-2 record, that would likely be enough to make the cut in an expanded field.