If the CFP were today, these teams are the favorites, and these have big questions — SkimNews
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- LSU routed Clemson 51-10 behind quarterback Sam Leavitt, whose offense produced 19 explosive plays, 38 first downs, and 644 total yards — a performance first-year coach Lane Kiffin immediately downplayed, telling reporters his backup defenders "did not perform up to our standard" because they let Clemson score.
- Five SEC schools — LSU, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss — would fill half of the projected 12-team College Football Playoff bracket, reflecting the conference's overwhelming Week 1 footprint.
- Miami is the only ACC team in the projected field after the conference went 1-5 against other Power 4 opponents with a minus-80 scoring margin, both worst marks in league history; the Hurricanes' next ranked opponent may not come until Notre Dame on Nov. 7.
- Texas Tech secured the Big 12's only projected spot as the conference champion, bumping Texas A&M from the No. 11 seed; quarterback Will Hammond returned from a knee injury in a 33-10 win over Abilene Christian, with former Boston College QB Tommy Castellanos also taking snaps.
- Indiana and the Big Ten occupy three projected slots (Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana), with new Hoosiers QB Josh Hoover throwing four touchdowns and no turnovers in a 52-16 win over North Texas despite a bloody, ripped-off helmet.
- Boise State leads the Group of 6 playoff race at 17.5% per ESPN Analytics despite a 34-27 loss at Oregon, with the committee's emphasis on "how teams lose" keeping the Broncos alive ahead of a decisive G6 matchup at Memphis.
- USC and Tennessee are flagged as Week 1 enigmas — both blew out FCS-level opponents (71-0 over Nicholls for Kansas State; Furman for Tennessee's true-freshman QB Faizon Brandon, who threw five TDs) but won't face real tests for another month.
Why it matters: The Week 1 results created a 5-to-1 SEC-to-ACC imbalance in the projected bracket — a structural problem the expanded CFP format was designed to stress-test, with the Big 12 banking on a single conference champion and the Big Ten yet to sort itself out before Michigan-Oklahoma and Ohio State-Texas next weekend reshape the field.
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