Welcome back to another week of predicting the College Football Playoff field! This week saw yet another AP top 2 team fall. That team was Ohio State.

Big Ten

Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, Julian Sayin’s injury left the offense broken. The Buckeyes are all the way out of the field right now. Up next is Oregon in Columbus, a game the Buckeyes have to win.

Staying in the Big Ten, Indiana needed yet another overtime game to take care of an opponent in the middle of the Big Ten. The Hoosiers have a bye week upcoming where they will try to reset the offense.

UCLA dispatched Nevada 27-0 in their final buy game of the season. Up next, it heads to Minnesota.

With Northwestern falling to Oregon this weekend, and Iowa beating Wisconsin, the cap for the Big Ten is three bids.

ACC

In the ACC, Miami struggled a bit against an upstart North Carolina team before pulling out the victory 38-35. The Hurricanes stay first overall despite the struggle. They are clearly the best team in the ACC, and they’ve taken care of everything so far this season. However, next weekend, they head to South Bend to face off with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a game the Irish have to have. Wake Forest dominated Virginia 51-7 to help further their push towards the top 10. With Ohio State falling out, the Deacs jump in!

Notre Dame

Speaking of Notre Dame, they struggled with Navy in the first half Saturday before pulling away to win 35-13. To reiterate: their only path to the college football playoff needs a victory over Miami. Without it, their best win is vs. Wisconsin to open the year.

Big 12

The Big 12 continues to be chaotic. Utah came into Cincinnati this weekend and jumped out to a 42-6 lead at the break before coasting to a 49-25 victory. Utah has been the most consistent team in the Big 12 this season and currently sits at 8-0 and has the Holy War up this weekend against BYU. The Cougars have struggled since beating Notre Dame three weeks ago. They went into UCF and fell to the Knights last weekend before struggling to put away Arizona State Saturday. They need to do some soul searching this weekend before the biggest game of the year in Utah.

Texas Tech battled with a tough Arizona squad Saturday, pulling out a hard fought victory. Thomas Castellanos got the start, but it was the rushing game that took over. J’Koby Williams and Castellanos combined for 292 yards on the ground in the victory. Tech remains right on the edge of the playoff this week, and has a relatively favorable schedule the final 4 weeks.

The Big 12 can absolutely end up with 3 bids, however, there’s a slim path to getting there. It likely involves Tech winning out, Utah falling to BYU, and all three of the top teams ending up with 1 loss headed into championship week. The other conferences, notably the Big Ten, help this scenario with a down year. After Oklahoma State lost Saturday, I believe that only 3 teams have a shot at the CFP, and Houston, Arizona and Oklahoma State are out of contention.

SEC

Last, but not least, we arrive at the SEC.

Georgia and Kentucky are the clear favorites with just one loss on the year. They’re both atop the standings at the moment. However, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas, LSU, Tennessee, and Missouri are all lurking with two losses. Say what you want about “SEC bias” from national media members, this conference is a gauntlet.

Atop the conference, Georgia dominated the Florida Gators 27-8 Saturday to climb to even with the idle Kentucky Wildcats. Up next, UGA travels to Oxford to battle with Ole Miss. The Rebels took care of Auburn this weekend 45-15, and are among the first teams out this weekend. Texas dominated Mississippi State Saturday, winning 31-3, and it appears that Arch Manning has figured it out a bit over the last two weeks. He was insanely efficient, going 16-20 for 220 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Alabama, LSU, Missouri and Tennessee were also on byes this weekend.

Saturday features multiple elite matchups, with Kentucky heading to Neyland to battle Tennessee, while Alabama heads to Death Valley to play the LSU Tigers, Missouri hosts Texas, and as mentioned above, Georgia travels to Ole Miss.

Group of 6

In the Group of 6, Boise State survived in a classic this weekend, winning 46-45. Their closest competition is New Mexico, who is up to 7-1 on the season. If Boise slips up, UNM will be there to make them pay.