College Football Playoff rankings 2022: Projected Week 13 Top 25 after Tennessee upset, USC proves itself, Ohio State gets scared

Projected College Football Playoff rankings after Week 12: No. 20-19

20. Cincinnati Bearcats

We were never really going to learn all that much at this point of the season from Cincinnati facing a truly awful Temple team. But there is something to be said for putting forth a convincing win and that’s what Luke Fickell’s Bearcats were able to do on Saturday as they cruised to a relatively mundane 23-3 win.

When you look at this Cincinnati team, while they may be lesser than last season, the roster is stout for a G5 team. They have a ton of talent but it does feel as if quarterback Ben Bryant limits their ceiling. We’ll definitely get a first-hand look at how much that is true when the Bearcats take on another Group of 5 power for a huge AAC showdown next week when they host Tulane.

19. UCLA Bruins

No one saw last week’s UCLA loss to Arizona coming, but almost everyone was wise enough to write it off as Chip Kelly’s team looking ahead to this week’s showdown against USC. And sure enough, Dorian Thompson-Robertson and the Bruins were up to the task. They jumped out to an early lead over their in-city rivals and were going blow-for-blow with Caleb Williams and the Trojans.

Ultimately, though, it was untimely turnovers – most hurtfully the last-minute pick thrown by DTR – that gave the Trojans the edge and ended up with UCLA taking its third loss of the season. The Arizona loss stings quite a bit now as losses to Oregon and USC are nothing to scoff at, but now a three-loss Bruins team is hanging on at the bottom of the Top 20 of the CFP rankings.