It was another exciting week of college football, with multiple prospective conference champions taking unexpected losses. That means we have two new top-four seeds in the College Football Playoff projections.
Georgia lost Ole Miss this weekend, claiming its second SEC loss. Granted, the Bulldogs had one of the hardest schedules in the conference, with Tennessee still left on their schedule. But this isn’t the Georgia that we thought it'd be, struggling all season to rhythm on offense and stopping anybody on defense.
Miami is the second team to lose its top-four position. Hurricanes have averaged 43.6 points against ACC opponents all season, but against Georgia Tech, they only managed to put a 23. Honestly, it’s been amazing luck that Miami’s reached this point without a loss. It took questionable calls at the end of the game to survive upsets from Virginia Tech and Cal.
In their place or a couple of surprising teams that no one saw as being where they are today.
2024 week eleven 12-team CFP prediction
Rank | Team | Why are they here | Previous rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oregon | Big 10 Champion | 2 |
2 | BYU | Big 12 Champion | 4 |
3 | SMU | ACC Champion | Not Ranked |
4 | Texas A&M | SEC Champion | 11 |
5 | Ohio State | At-large | 5 |
6 | Texas | At-large | 6 |
7 | Penn St | At-large | 7 |
8 | Georgia | At-large | 1 |
9 | Notre Dame | At-large | 8 |
10 | Tennessee | At-large | 9 |
11 | Ole Miss | At-large | Not Ranked |
12 | Boise St | MW Champion | 12 |
Texas A&M is the first. It had one slip-up against South Carolina — and it was a major one — but the only team left on the schedule that should give the Aggies trouble is Texas. Fortunately for them, the game will be in College Station, and with SEC championship implications on the line and a renewed rivalry, you can expect A&M to play the best game of the season.
The next one is ACC newcomer SMU. The Mustang struggled against Nevada to start the season and dropped an early game to BYU. But with the Cougars undefeated, that loss doesn’t look as bad on SMU’s résumé. It's the only team in the league without a conference loss, and with momentum on their side and tiebreakers over Miami and Clemson, SMU is likely going to the ACC championship. You can expect them to try to prove the point that they belong at that level if they, indeed, make it.
Georgia drops to No. 9, while Miami falls completely out of the CFP prediction. Instead, Ole Miss — which beat Georgia — comes in at No. 11. Unfortunately, undefeated Indiana dropped out as well. The Hoosiers have been a great story to follow, but in reality, their season hasn’t been difficult. And with essentially the Big Ten tiebreaker game between it and Ohio State coming up, I don’t think Indiana can pull off the upset. And with their schedule, a Big Ten championship game bid is the only way they get into the CFP.