College Football Playoff Rankings Week 9
My Top 25 College Football Playoff Rankings
1. Georgia 
2. Tennessee 
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan
5. TCU
6. Clemson
7. Oregon
8. Alabama
9. USC
10. Ole Miss
11. UCLA
12. North Carolina
13. Illinois
14. Tulane
15. Liberty
16. Coastal Carolina
17. LSU
18. Penn State
19. Maryland
20. Washington
21. Utah
22. Kansas State
23. Boise State
24. N.C. State
25. UCF
My New Years’ Six Projections.
Peach Bowl (Semi-Final) – Tennessee vs. Clemson
Fiesta Bowl (Semi-Final) – Ohio State vs. TCU
Cotton Bowl – Georgia vs. USC
Rose Bowl – Michigan vs. Oregon
Orange Bowl – North Carolina vs. Alabama
Sugar Bowl – Ole Miss vs. Tulane
National Championship Game in Los Angeles – Tennessee vs. Ohio State
Now before you tell me I’m a homer or say less than nice things about my intelligence or worse, let me explain my reasoning for my college football playoff rankings. The rankings are if the season ended TODAY. But the bowl projections are how I think the FUTURE will shake out the rest of the season. In my rankings, wins, and losses count. I will try my best to be consistent about this and never rank a team with two losses above a team with one loss.
My college football playoff rankings are how well a team is playing and how well they have played and not always who is the best at this time. I’ll give an example from this week. I don’t think the Liberty, Coastal Carolina, and Tulane are better than or would beat LSU if they played this week. I do think that Liberty, Coastal Carolina, and Tulane are having better seasons than LSU for the simple fact they have a better record, and better records should be a primary consideration in ranking teams.
Another ranking that I’m sure will draw scrutiny is having Oregon ranked ahead of Alabama. This doesn’t mean I necessarily think the Ducks would beat the Crimson Tide if they played, but they lost the #1 team and Alabama lost to the #2 team. Also, we’ve seen a lot of Oregon and their improvement since their loss to Georgia whereas we haven’t seen as much from Bama yet since their loss to Tennessee.
I’ll try to explain rankings and projections that may be thought of as controversial or I worry may leave my readers scratching their heads. Like having only two of my current top four make the playoffs. I think Tennessee beats Georgia and wins the SEC, and I believe Ohio State, TCU, and Clemson all go undefeated and win the Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC which would keep a potential one-loss non-conference champion like Georgia last year, or maybe this year, or Michigan from being the second team from their respective conferences to get a playoff spot.
I look for the rankings to change as #1 Georgia hosts #2 Tennessee this coming Saturday and #8 Alabama takes on #17 LSU in Death Valley. #6 Clemson travels to Indiana to take on Notre Dame in what should be a good test for the Tigers.
Take it easy on me and comment if you feel I’ve done your team an injustice and we can have a discussion about it. Remember these are how things stand after Week 9 and will likely look very different after Week 10. There is still a lot of football left to be played and all of this will very likely sort itself out on the field before Selection Sunday when the final college football playoff rankings of the season are revealed.
Here is a link to the official College Football Playoff Rankings for you to compare to mine and see who you think is closer to how the 2022 season is going!
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