FanPost

What-If Playoff Bracket: 11/5

Another week, another update to the playoff projections. As a quick reminder, this is look at what a true playoff would look like if it followed a more traditional format (conference champions plus at-large bids to fill the bracket). For more on the origin of this plan and how the field is picked, click here.

This week didn't provide much of a shakeup, in large part due to inactivity at the top of the standings. Still, Miami dropped from #7 to #11 with their loss to FSU. Also, big news out of Conference USA! With a loss to North Texas this week, Rice dropped out of the top spot in the conference, and as a result I've selected Tulane as the projected winner of the wide-open C-USA.

Here's the field for this week:

#1 Alabama (SEC Champion) [Last week: 1]
#2 Florida State (ACC Champion) [3]
#3 Oregon (Pac-12 Champion) [2]
#4 Ohio State (Big Ten Champion) [4]
#5 Stanford (At-large, Pac-12 #2) [5]
#6 Baylor (Big 12 Champion) [6]
#7 Clemson (At-large, ACC #2) [8]
#8 Missouri (At-large, SEC #2) [9]
#9 Auburn (At-large, SEC #3) [11]
#10 Oklahoma (At-large, Big 12 #2) [10]
#11 Miami (FL) (At-large, ACC #3) [7]
#12 Fresno State (Mountain West Champion) [12]
#13 Northern Illinois (MAC Champion) [13]
#14 Central Florida (AAC Champion) [14]
#15 Tulane (C-USA Champion) [DNQ]
#16 Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt Champion) [16]

Bubble Teams:
South Carolina (7-2)
LSU (7-2)
Oklahoma State (7-1)
Texas A&M (7-2)
Michigan State (8-1)

Hointwv_medium

This is the first bracket we've had where people might have an issue with the matchups, as SEC comrades Missouri and Auburn play each other in the first round and likely play SEC champ Alabama in the next. Personally I'm okay with it, but do people have an issue with same-conference matchups?

Also, since we're B1G fans it's worth noting that while Michigan State is the fifth bubble team available, if a non-SEC team drops out they are actually the 2nd team in line to jump in, as we only allow 3 teams from a given conference into the playoff.

Thoughts? Discuss!

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