
YOUR 2026 COLLEGE PLAYOFF BRACKET
Conference Championship Week indeed played a huge factor in this year's playoff bracket.
Tennessee went into the CUSA Championship ranked #19 and only moved up 3 spots to #16 in the Polls after defeating Notre Dame (27-21) but it was enough of a movie in the eye of those creating the brackets to award them the #12 Seed.
#1 Ohio State lost to #2 Michigan (34-28) in the Big Ten Title game and with that fell to #4 in the Poll's and the Buckeyes will be the #5 seed for the playoff
The winner will face #4 Clemson who defeated Liberty (38-13) to win the ACC title. The Tigers are #5 in the polls, but received the #4 seed and 1st Round Bye.
With the loss Liberty fell from #13 to #15 in the Poll's and is out of the playoff.
Despite not playing in the SEC title game and finishing the regular season (9-3), the Florida Gators jumped 3 spots from #12 to #9 in the Polls and claim the #9 seed in the playoff.
The Cal Bears lost to BSU in the Pac-12/14 title game finishing the year 11-2 but still held onto the #8 seed in the playoffs as they will take on the Gators.
The winner will face #1 seed Michigan.
Notre Dame was ranked #9 and projected for the #8/#9 seed before losing the CUSA Championship to Tennessee. With the loss the Irish drop to #11 in the Polls and claim the #11 Seed in the playoff.
Oregon started the year #4 in the Pre-Season Poll losing to BSU in Week 1, the Ducks then fell to instate rival Oregon State in Week 3, but went on afterwards to win 9 straight including a blowout (49-0) win over BYU in Week 13 to climb to #6 in the rankings. The Ducks will also grab the #6 seed and play the Irish for a chance to take on #3 Auburn in Round 2.
UCF lost to Auburn in the SEC Championship finishing the year at 10-3. However despite the loss the Knights actually climbed in the polls going from #11 to #10 and grabbed the #10 Seed in the Playoffs
Despite falling to Cal in Week 13 and missing out on a chance to rematch BSU in the Pac-12/14 title game, Stanford's (10-2) record impressed the poll voters enough to jump from #10 to #7 in the final week as they claim the #7 seed in the playoffs. If they can get past UCF they will get the rematch with the Broncos they were hoping for except now it will be in Round 2 of the playoffs, as BSU moves to #2 in the Polls and secures the #2 seed.
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