Week 7 of the 2023 college football season is now in the books for the Top 25 teams in the country and we know quite a bit more than we did previously.
USC is, in fact, fraudulent after getting worked by Notre Dame. North Carolina is 100% for real as the Heels' undefeated run continued against Miami. Oh yeah, and Washington was better than Oregon on Saturday -- but the two teams might simply be overall evenly matched contenders. And that's just the beginning of the lessons learned.
In just over two weeks, the first College Football Playoff rankings will be released ahead of the final year of the four-team bracket. Next season, we'll move to the 12-team Playoff that will have a field of the six highest-ranked conference champions and six highest-ranked other teams for at-large bids (at least for now amid realignment).
So what would the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket look like this season, or at least after the Week 7 results?
Based on our AP Top 25 projections for Week 8 in the college football rankings, here's how the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket would shake out.
CFB Rankings: How 12-team College Football Playoff bracket would look after Week 7
Byes (Top 4 conference champions in College Football Rankings)
- Georgia Bulldogs (SEC Champs, 7-0)
- Michigan Wolverines (Big Ten Champs, 7-0)
- Florida State Seminoles (ACC Champs, 6-0)
- Oklahoma Sooners (Big 12 Champs, 6-0)
As of right now in the latest projections, Oklahoma gets a bye as the projected Big 12 champions, which gives the Sooners a jump in the seeding over No. 3-ranked Ohio State, who loses out to Michigan. Speaking of the Wolverines, Jim Harbaugh's team is making a strong case that they should be No. 1 over Georgia sooner rather than later.
College Football Playoff Bracket: First Round Matchups
- 12 Air Force Falcons (MWC Champs, 6-0) at 5 Washington Huskies (Pac-12 Champs, 6-0)
- 11 Alabama Crimson Tide (At-Large, 6-1) at 6 Ohio State Buckeyes (At-Large, 6-0)
- 10 Oregon Ducks (At-Large, 5-1) at 7 Penn State Nittany Lions (At-Large, 5-0)
- 9 North Carolina Tar Heels (At-Large, 6-0) at 8 Texas Longhorns (At-Large, 5-1)
Air Force gets the nod as the top-ranked Group of 5 conference champions after the Falcons moved to 6-0 on the year with a big-time win over Wyoming. Unfortunately, they get matched up with Washington, which proved itself as a contender yet again.
Let's mostly take this time, however, to appreciate the other matchups we could get. Historically, Alabama at Ohio State could be a national championship game. Oregon and Penn State, two teams trying to crack through the blue-blood wall, would be phenomenal. And let's not forget Mack Brown building UNC up to go face his other former team, Texas. Sign. Me. Up!
College Football Playoff Bracket: Quarterfinal Matchups
- 9 UNC/8 Texas at 1 Georgia
- 10 Oregon/7 Penn State at 2 Michigan
- 11 Alabama/6 Ohio State at 3 Florida State
- 12 Air Force/5 Washington at 4 Oklahoma
There would be plenty of fireworks that could be in store for the quarterfinals of this hypothetical College Football Playoff bracket. Georgia-Texas could light the world on fire, as could either Alabama or Ohio State against Florida State. But Washington-Oklahoma? Sheesh, that could be a total in th 80s for that one, and would be a phenomenal watch for a Playoff game.