College Gameday Crew’s 12-Team Playoff Predictions

During ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning, the GameDay analysts made their College Football Playoff picks.

Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard each gave their predictions for the 12-team CFP bracket this season.

Of course, this season is the first featuring the 12-team playoff format, which is set for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The field will feature the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams, as determined by the CFP Selection Committee.

The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive first-round byes, with the fifth highest-ranked conference champion being seeded where it was ranked, or at No. 12 if its final ranking lands outside of the top 12.

Herbstreit and Howard have Clemson making the 12-team playoff field, while Saban and McAfee did not pick the Tigers to make the playoff.

Here are the GameDay analysts’ playoff predictions (seedings in parentheses):

Howard : (1) Oregon, (2) Georgia, (3) Miami, (4) Utah, (5) Texas, (6) Ole Miss, (7) Ohio State, (8) Michigan, (9) Oklahoma, (10) Clemson, (11) Notre Dame, (12) Liberty

First two teams out: Penn State, Alabama

Saban : (1) Georgia, (2) Ohio State, (3) Florida State, (4) Utah, (5) Texas, (6) Oregon, (7) Alabama, (8) Ole Miss, (9) Penn State, (10) Notre Dame, (11) LSU, (12) Liberty

First two teams out: Missouri, Clemson

Herbstreit : (1) Georgia, (2) Ohio State, (3) Clemson, (4) Utah, (5) Oregon, (6) Texas, (7) Missouri, (8) Penn State, (9) Notre Dame, (10) Florida State, (11) Michigan, (12) Boise State

First two teams out: Ole Miss, Oklahoma State

McAfee : (1) Georgia, (2) Ohio State, (3) West Virginia, (4) Virginia Tech, (5) Ole Miss, (6) Oregon, (7) Texas, (8) Michigan, (9) Florida State, (10) Utah, (11) Alabama, (12) Boise State

First two teams out: Oklahoma State, Penn State

You can watch the College GameDay segment with Saban, McAfee, Herbstreit and Howard discussing their playoff predictions and the impact of the expanded 12-team playoff below:

–Photo courtesy Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports

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