Three undefeated teams remain, and a new group of two- and three-loss teams have entered the College Football Playoff conversation after Week 8.
Indiana made a strong case for the No. 1 seed with its gritty road win over Michigan. But who takes the No. 2 slot, between one-loss teams like Georgia and Ohio State? Which Group of Six squad earns the No. 12 seed? FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt has the answers, as he updated his 12-team CFP bracket on the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show”.
Here are Klatt’s updated College Football Playoff projections.
Klatt’s thoughts: “So who’s the No. 1 seed in all of this? Well, Miami will have lost. Georgia would have two losses. So I’m looking at the Big Ten champion, Indiana Hoosiers. Their only loss would be to Ohio State. They would have avenged that loss in the conference championship game. And in this scenario â if Ohio State were to win out, with a Miami loss to Notre Dame â [Indiana] would be the No. 1 team in the country in the Big Ten championship game. Which means Indiana would, for the second straight year, be the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff.”
Klatt’s thoughts: “So who gets the second seed? Last year, Ohio State was No. 1. They got beat and just went to No. 2. I don’t think that’s the case this year, because I think that [the committee] would honor the strength of schedule. Obviously, Ohio State has a ridiculous strength of schedule as well. This is just a projection, and I think they would honor the SEC. I think the committee favors the SEC. You guys know this about me. I think that the entire narrative of the sport favors the SEC.
“So, in this setting, I would think that Georgia would get the No. 2 overall seed. And I’m not arguing against that. I’m just saying like that’s kind of how I see it panning out. This is what we see. You know, the narrative would fit. They would have avenged their late-season loss to Ole Miss. They beat Ole Miss [in the SEC championship game]. They win the SEC, and boom, Georgia would be No. 2.”
Klatt’s thoughts: “So now you get to the No. 3 seed, and I think my No. 2 and No. 3 seeds would be basically interchangeable. I think it gets a little bit more tricky here at three. I think you’ve got to consider Notre Dame, although their schedule doesn’t look great. You got to consider Miami, although they just lost to Notre Dame. So, where are we landing? Well, again, Ohio State would be No. 1 in the country playing the Big Ten championship game in our scenario. And if they lose to Indiana, in particular, if it’s a great game like we’ve seen them play great games, I think they would go to number three right there. And by the way, you could probably interchange my Georgia at two and Ohio State at three, but those two teams are two and three. I’ve got Ohio State as my No. 3 overall seed. They would be 11-2 in this setting. Okay, so Ohio State is in there at number three.”
Klatt’s thoughts: “Who gets No. 4? This is the last bye. It’s important. This No. 4 seed is vital. Even though we’ve only seen one team in the history of this 12-team playoff actually win a quarterfinal game after the long break. I’m going to give it to Notre Dame. They would be 11-1 on the back of their late-season win over Miami, who, by the way, will be the No. 1 team in the country when they play in South Bend, so that would be a win over the No. 1 team in the country. I think Notre Dame gets the No. 4 seed right there. Their résumé is not going to be the strongest. I think they’re going to pass the eye test. People love CJ Carr. I love CJ Carr, and Notre Dame is going to get in there. Remember, in this case, they are 11-1. They beat Miami, who was No. 1 in November, and they’re the No. 4 seed.”
Klatt’s thoughts: “Now we go to the No. 5 seed. The first team with a home game non-bye is then going to be Miami. That’s why that game becomes so importan
