2024 Week Six 12-team College Football Playoff rankings prediction
There are no words to describe how it felt watching college football this past weekend. All week long, people grumbled about Saturday’s slate of games with only a handful of top-25 matchups. That’s when we should’ve known things were about to get crazy.
Four teams in the top 25 lost on Saturday to unranked opponents: Michigan, USC, Tennessee, and the mighty Alabama. And although it wasn’t a loss to an unranked team, the wheels fell off No. 9 Missouri against No. Texas A&M, losing 41-10.
Needless to say, the College Football Playoff predictions are in shambles, with two new additions and a new conference champion.
2024 week six 12-team CFP prediction
Rank | Team | Why are they here | Previous rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ohio State | Big 10 Champion | 1 |
2 | Texas | SEC Champion | 2 |
3 | Miami | ACC Champion | 3 |
4 | Iowa St | Big 12 Champion | 11 |
5 | Penn St | At-large | 5 |
6 | Clemson | At-large | 9 |
7 | Oregon | At-large | 10 |
8 | Georgia | At-large | 8 |
9 | Texas A&M | At-large | Not Ranked |
10 | Alabama | At-large | 6 |
11 | Utah | At-large | 4 |
12 | Boise St | MW Champion | Not Ranked |
The two teams to drop out are Tennessee and UNLV. The Rebels have had a fantastic season going into their game against Syracuse. However, their NIL/locker room drama went viral last week when the starting quarterback, Mathew Sluka, announced he was holding out due to a lack of NIL payments. I hesitated to add them to last week's CFP predictions, but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. While it’s unfair to take them off after a three-point loss to an ACC team, as a Group of Five school vying for a playoff position, they must be nearly perfect.
On the other hand, Tennessee has shown the nation that its offense isn’t nearly as potent as people thought. It shouldn’t be a surprise. Ole Miss pulled the exact same stuff the week before, losing to Kentucky 20-17. Both teams played horrendous defenses to start the season, inflating their offenses and deceiving college football fans.
Let’s talk about the Vols defense, though. If Arkansas could’ve finished drives, the Hogs would have won that game by two or three scores. Looking back at all of Tennessee's previous opponents, none have an offense with an efficiency rating in the top half of college football. They hadn’t been tested, and it showed on Saturday night.
The other SEC team to fall is Alabama, who lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in 40 years. It's the Commodores' first win over a top-5 AP-ranked opponent in history. It's an absolutely embarrassing loss for the Tide, but they have a great roster and a favorable schedule. For right now, they stay in at No. 10.
Although Utah won Saturday, its loss to Arizona State is looking worse and worse, with the Wildcats dropping a game to Texas Tech. However, they're still listed, falling to No. 11 because they have a decent schedule going forward. Conversely, Iowa State looks pretty good. They still have a few tests in front of them, with Kansas State and Utah, but the Cyclones schedule is favorable.
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