Early season results are already shaping the 12-team College Football Playoff projections.
Florida State is now projected to make the playoff field after a strong start to its season.
Despite an 0-2 start, Notre Dame is still considered a potential playoff team if it wins its remaining games.
The college football season is only three weeks old, but some contenders are already making their cases for the playoff and others have fallen by the wayside or are left with no margin for error.
That means there’s more changes in this week’s bowl projections trying to forecast how the 12-team CFP field will look in December.
Clemson’s last-second loss to Georgia Tech sent the Tigers tumbling out of the playoff. The decision was then which team would replace them. There was thought of a fifth SEC team (Mississippi). Maybe one from the Big 12 (Iowa State). But in the end, the choice is Florida State, which is off a strong start with its defeat of Alabama and faces a manageable schedule in the ACC.
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One team still sticking around is Notre Dame. While the Irish are 0-2, the two losses are against two strong teams by a combined four points. The schedule gets easier for Marcus Freeman’s squad, and there’s enough quality there to justify a spot if they can run the table.
Many of the top teams are off this week ahead of some huge showdowns in Week 5. But there’s enough important matchups that we could see more changes in next week’s edition.
Notes: Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season. Not all conferences will fulfill their bowl allotment. An asterisk represents a replacement pick.