Senior college football writer Author of seven books on college football Graduate of the University of Georgia
There have been some significant developments in the college football postseason world over the last five days. First we had the initial College Football Playoff committee's rankings, which were released Tuesday night. Then came Saturday, when we had big games and key results to shake things up.
No. 4 Miami fell to unranked Georgia Tech, with the Hurricanes suffering their first loss of the season. No. 3 Georgia was soundly beaten by No. 16 Ole Miss at Oxford, Mississippi, and No. 11 Alabama posted an impressive road win by routing No. 15 LSU at Death Valley.
No. 8 Indiana and No. 9 BYU both remained unbeaten, but neither win came easily. And with Iowa State suffering its second loss in a row, No. 20 Colorado has emerged as a legitimate threat to make the Big 12 championship game.
What does it all mean for the College Football Playoff and the overall bowl picture?
In the new, expanded 12-team playoff, the five highest-ranked conference champions will make the field along with the next seven highest-ranked teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be awarded first-round byes, with the other eight teams meeting at the campus sites of the Nos. 5-8 seeds.
From there, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in what had been the New Year's Six bowls, with this season's national championship game scheduled for Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
All of that is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Apart from the playoff is the 36-game slate of bowls, from the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 14 to the Bahamas Bowl on Jan. 4.
We're here for all of it.
ESPN bowl gurus Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach are projecting every postseason matchup, including their breakdowns of how the CFP will play out, every week until the actual matchups are set on Selection Day (Dec. 8).