Projected Final College Football Playoff bracket, Top 25 rankings: Alabama upends UGA, Florida State perseveres
Projected Final College Football Playoff rankings:: No. 15-11
15. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
After Notre Dame lost to Ohio State, it felt like most people just wrote the Irish out of the national conversation in college football. Yet, it was still quite the solid season with Sam Hartman at the helm as a grad transfer, going 9-3 without no losses to an unranked team. After the disaster of 2022, that’s definitely progress, but Marcus Freeman will have to find another quarterback to keep things on an upward trajectory in South Bend.
14. Arizona Wildcats
Arizona ended the regular season as one of the hottest teams in college football. After starting 3-3 with losses at Mississippi State (which looks inexplicable now) and in tight ones against Washington and USC, Jedd Fisch’s Wildcats won their final six games of the season. Had Oregon lost to Oregon State, they’d have been in the Pac-12 title game. That wasn’t meant to be, but they clearly got the right one in Tucson as Arizona can now make waves in the new Big 12 next season.
13. LSU Tigers
When you look at the effort that the likely Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels put forth this season, one has to wonder what might’ve been for LSU if they’d had any semblance of a defense this season. In the end, though, the defense was abysmal more often than not, which led to a 9-3 season overall. Despite that, it doesn’t feel like the Tigers are going anywhere with the way Brian Kelly has this thing going, even with obvious improvements that need to be made.
12. Oklahoma Sooners
If we were talking solely about the two best teams in the Big 12, then Oklahoma probably should’ve been having a rematch with Texas on Saturday afternoon in Arlington. But a loss in Bedlam ultimately sealed the Sooners’ fate, so they were left watching at home. Now, Brent Venables’ team is on the fringe of a New Year’s Six bid, but might be left out and playing in a slightly lesser game for the postseason.
11. Ole Miss Rebels
On one hand, Ole Miss shouldn’t be one to complain about 10-win seasons. The Rebels finished 10-2 for just the second time in program history, both coming under Lane Kiffin. He has this thing humming in Oxford. However, it’s only natural to want more and Ole Miss lost its two biggest games of the year, falling at Alabama and at Georgia. How they close that gap now becomes harder to ascertain as the SEC only gets tougher with Texas and Oklahoma on the way.