The Week 11 college football schedule provided further clarity for what the respective conference and College Football Playoff races may look like as the season enters its final stretch run.
The top four teams of last week’s US LBM Coaches Poll and CFP top 25 — No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Indiana, No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 4 Alabama — won their Week 11 contests, setting up potential championship games between the Buckeyes and Hoosiers in the Big Ten and Aggies and Crimson Tide in the Southeastern Conference.
But what about the rest of college football landscape?
In the Atlantic Coast Conference, any hope the league had of producing multiple bids took a major hit on Saturday, Nov. 8, as two of its top teams in No. 11 Virginia (No. 14 in CFP) and No. 15 Louisville (No. 15 CFP) fell to Wake Forest and California, respectively. With the ACC standings currently muddied heading into the final three weeks of the season, it seems only the ACC champion may make it to the CFP in 2025-26.
Elsewhere, No. 9 Texas Tech (No. 8 CFP) demolished previously unbeaten No. 8 BYU (No. 7 CFP) to claim Big 12 supremacy after Week 11. And South Florida has once again emerged as a favorite to earn the Group of Five nod after not only beating Texas-San Antonio, 55-23, but also watching prior favorite Memphis fall 38-32 to Tulane on Friday, Nov. 7.
As the 12-team College Football Playoff field continues to take shape, here’s what USA TODAY Sports’ experts think the final bracket will look like after Week 11:
CFP bracket projections after Week 11
Craig Meyer, USA TODAY Network
Ohio State *
Alabama *
Indiana
Texas A&M
Texas Tech *
Georgia
Ole Miss
Notre Dame
Oregon
Miami *
Vanderbilt
James Madison *
* Denotes one of five highest-ranked conference champions
Ohio State and Alabama look well-positioned to win the Big Ten and SEC, respectively, while Texas Tech showed pretty definitively Saturday it’s the best team in the Big 12. I still think Miami has a clear enough path and more than enough talent to win a chaotic ACC while the American will cannibalize itself enough to get Sun Belt team James Madison a back door into the playoff as the designated non-Power Four participant.
Austin Curtright, USA TODAY Network
Ohio State *
Alabama *
Indiana
Georgia
Texas A&M
Texas Tech *
Ole Miss
Notre Dame
Oregon
Texas
Georgia Tech *
USF *
* Denotes one of five highest-ranked conference champions
Ohio State looks like the best team in college football this season, and, as of now, I have the Buckeyes taking down Indiana in the Big Ten title game to secure the No. 1 spot in the CFP bracket. I also have Alabama beating Georgia for the second time this season in the SEC championship game, as Texas A&M misses out on a conference title game berth after falling to Texas in the season finale.
Ehsan Kassim, USA TODAY Network
Ohio State *
Alabama *
Indiana
Texas A&M
Georgia
Texas Tech *
Notre Dame
Oregon
Ole Miss
Texas
Georgia Tech *
South Florida *
* Denotes one of five highest-ranked conference champions
Until someone shows me they can beat the defending champions, Ohio State remains the best team in the country. Ranking 2-6 is pretty even, but Alabama earns the No. 2 ranking as the Crimson Tide beat Georgia in the SEC championship game. Georgia Tech and USF get the last two spots as the ACC and American champs, respectively.
John Leuzzi, USA TODAY Network
Ohio State *
Alabama *
Indiana
Texas A&M
Georgia
Notre Dame
Ole Miss
Texas Tech *
Oregon
BYU
Georgia Tech *
North Texas *
Even with Carnell Tate absent from its win at Purdue, Ohio State remains the top-seeded team in the CFP. Alabama likewise kept its undefeated streak in the SEC, making the Buckeyes and Crimson Tide the top two seeds. The Big 12 runs through Lubbock with Texas Tech, which held BYU to a season-low 255 total yards of offense this past week.
Where it gets tricky is who will represent the ACC and Group of Five. For now, I think it is Georgia Tech — largely in part to Virginia’s loss to Wake Forest and Louisville’s loss to Cal — and North Texas, though the winner out of the American feels like a toss-up each week.
Craig Meyer, Austin Curtright, Ehsan Kassim and John Leuzzi of the USA TODAY Network contributed to this article.
