College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction - Who's In and Who's Out?

Predicting how the third week of college football playoff rankings look.

Jan 19, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; The College Football Playoff National Championship trophy at a press conference at The Westin Peachtree Plaza, Savannah Ballroom. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Predicting how the third week of college football playoff rankings look.

The second release of the college football playoff rankings was released last week. The Georgia Bulldogs came in at No. 5, so they are sitting comfortably with two games left in the season. The Bulldogs have stayed put in the first two sets of rankings; however, with Alabama losing this past weekend, the Dawgs will likely see some movement.

Not only did Alabama lose, but Oklahoma won. So the Sooners will likely climb up the rankings. On the flip side, Georgia handed Texas its third loss of the season, which likely puts them out of the picture. Outside of that though, there shouldn't be much shake up in this week's top 12 rankings.

It is worth noting that there has been shake up in regards to how the college football playoff will operate this season. Last year, the highest-ranked conference champions were awarded the top four seeds and first-round byes. This year, it will be the highest ranked four teams that receive first-round byes. Outside of that, it will operate the same way it did last season. The first round will be played at the higher ranked team's home stadium and from there on out, the games will be played at neutral sites.

This year, the national title game will be played in Miami, Florida, on January 19th. The first set of games of the playoff will be played on Dec. 19th, the second round will begin on Dec. 31st and the semifinals will be played on Jan. 8th and 9th.

So with that said, here is how I predict this week's college football playoff rankings will look.

College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction

Jan 19, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; The College Football Playoff National Championship trophy at a press conference at The Westin Peachtree Plaza, Savannah Ballroom. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Texas A&M
4. Georgia
5. Texas Tech
6. Ole Miss
7. Oregon
8. Notre Dame
9. Oklahoma
10. Alabama
11. BYU
12. Utah

It is worth noting that this is not how an actual playoff bracket would look. A Group of Five team would be included int he mix, which likely kicks Utah out and the ACC Champion would also likely get into the playoff, which means BYU would probably be booted out as well. As for the rest of it, we will have to see what happens this week and next week to get a better idea of where everyone stands.

The rankings will be revealed at 9:15 PM ET on ESPN on Tuesday. The official college football playoff bracket will be released the Sunday after conference championship weekend in December.