12-team College Football Playoff: Where Tennessee, LSU, USC and Alabama would fit in Week 12

What would the 12-team College Football Playoff look like in Week 12? USC is moving on up while Tennessee, LSU and Alabama have their chance.

College football fans are going to have to wait a few years to see a 12-team College Football Playoff bracket but that isn’t going to stop us from dreaming about it.

The Week 12 CFP rankings would have Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU in the four-team bracket.

If we applied the 12-team plan to the current rankings, things would shake out quite a bit differently.

How the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket would look in Week 12

First, here’s a quick recap of how the 12-team CFP field will be formed: The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a bye in the first round. The rest of the field will include the remaining Power 5 conference champion, the highest-ranked Group of 5 Champion and six at-large teams.

1. Georgia (BYE)
2. Ohio State (BYE)
3. TCU (BYE)
4. USC (BYE)
5. Michigan vs. No. 12 UCF
6. Tennessee vs. No. 11 Penn State
7. LSU vs. No. 10 Utah
8. Alabama vs. No. 9 Clemson

In the case of the Week 12 CFP rankings, that gives us Georgia, Ohio State, TCU and USC as the top four seeds (making the assumption that the currently highest-ranked team in each conference will win their conference title).

Clemson would get in as the presumed ACC Champion while UCF would take the G5 slot. Oregon and North Carolina are left out in this iteration but opportunities to get back in remain.

First-round matchups would set up a renewed rivalry between Alabama and Clemson while featuring rare meetings between Michigan and UCF, Tennessee and Penn State and LSU and Utah.

Here’s what the quarterfinals would look like:

• Georgia vs. Alabama/Clemson
• Ohio State vs. LSU/Utah
• TCU vs. Tennessee/Penn State
• USC vs. Michigan/UCF

Since we won’t see a Georgia vs. Alabama meeting this season, the potential quarterfinal matchup would be fun. Ohio State and LSU could meet for the first time since the 2007 BCS Championship Game. The Buckeyes could also get a 2022 Rose Bowl Game rematch. USC vs. Michigan would also have Rose Bowl vibes.

This year’s playoff of four is bound to be interesting, but there’s no way it would be as intriguing as the 12-team chaos that is coming in a few years. Who else can’t wait?