It was a dramatic weekend in college football during Week 13, featuring everything from historic blowouts, some incredible comebacks and a slew of thrilling close calls from top teams.
When it came to the race for the College Football Playoff though, not much changed as the entire top 14 in the most recent selection committee rankings all won or were off. Yet, there has been plenty of movement in the bowl system when it comes to looking ahead a few weeks toward Selection Sunday.
Focusing on the playoff first, all eyes will be on the SEC given that nearly every spot beyond the top seed is based on it. Alabama, in both the Iron Bowl and the conference championship game, will be crucial to determining the ranking for Texas A&M on down. Should the Tide win the conference by beating the undefeated Aggies or go 2-of-2 against Georgia this season, it would likely result in Alabama hosting a first-round game and shifting Oregon, Mississippi and others further down the Top 25. If Kalen DeBoer’s team loses in Atlanta, then the committee could have a very interesting decision with a 10–3 team compared to a slew of at-large candidates sporting the same number of wins.
As for the Sooners, their regular-season finale against LSU is the hope all other at-large teams have of getting in the field. Vanderbilt, Miami, Utah and BYU will all be huge Tigers supporters on Saturday. Should Brent Venables’s team win that one, then Oklahoma is in the field and will have an interesting discussion for the committee between the Sooners’ body of work and that of a Notre Dame team which is playing like a top-four seed in running off 10 consecutive wins. The committee has not gotten into the résumé minutia, so the Irish, for now, win the coin flip to host their first-round matchup against the Sooners—something that could change as soon as Tuesday.
Elsewhere, the bowl picture is also starting to come into clearer focus after a number of programs hit that magic number of six wins and a handful tripped up to force them further down the conference standings. Going into Thanksgiving, there are currently 72 bowl-eligible teams for a total of 82 spots, and there will be at least 20 teams with a shot to add their name to the list by Saturday night. Based on current projections, however, we are on pace to hit the precise number of teams for spots—or potentially have one excess 6–6 program left out. That’s not great news for the likes of Missouri State to make a bowl game in its first season in FBS or for Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team to go bowling at 5–7.
The weekend also shook up the bowl destinations quite a bit for several power conferences. Illinois’s surprising loss to Wisconsin kicks the Illini to the Music City Bowl to face archrival Missouri. Iowa State has a good shot at eight wins and is in line to reach the Alamo Bowl against a USC team eyeing double-digit wins even with its setback against Oregon. The Holiday Bowl could be a hard-nosed affair between Utah and Georgia Tech. Miami and Tennessee feel fairly certain to match up in the Gator Bowl. One cannot wait for the dichotomy between Kirk Ferentz and Iowa matching up against Diego Pavia and Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Also, welcome back into the postseason picture to the likes of Penn State and Florida State (yes, really).
Taking all that into account, here is how Sports Illustrated sees the playoff and all of 35 bowl games coming together to form the postseason picture in 2025–26 after Week 13.
College Football Playoff Projected Rankings After Week 13
- Ohio State
- Texas A&M
- Indiana
- Georgia
- Texas Tech
- Oregon
- Mississippi
- Notre Dame
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- SMU
- North Texas
First Round
- No. 9 Oklahoma at No. 8 Notre Dame
- No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Mississippi
- No. 11 SMU at No. 6 Oregon
- No. 12 North Texas at No. 5 Texas Tech
Quarterfinals
- Orange Bowl: No. 4 Georgia vs. winner of No. 12 North Texas vs. No. 5 Texas Tech
- Cotton Bowl: No. 3 Indiana vs. winner of No. 11 SMU vs. No. 6 Oregon
- Sugar Bowl: No. 2 Texas A&M vs. winner of No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Mississippi
- Rose Bowl: No. 1 Ohio State vs. winner of No. 9 Oklahoma at No. 8 Notre Dame
Bowl Projections After Week 13
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as College Football Playoff and Bowl Projections After Week 13: Alabama Holds Power.
