2024 College Football Playoff, bowl projections after Week 3 - ESPN

Week 3 didn't bring any big upsets, as the only ranked teams to lose (No. 20 Arizona and No. 24 Boston College) fell to teams ranked higher than them (No. 14 Kansas State and No. 6 Missouri, respectively).

But all wins are not created equal, as we saw when No. 1 Georgia narrowly avoided defeat with a 1-point win at Kentucky.

How did it all impact our playoff and bowl projections?

In the new, expanded 12-team playoff, the five highest-ranked conference champions will make the field along with the next seven highest-ranked teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be awarded first-round byes, with the other eight teams meeting at the campus sites of Seeds 5 through 8.

From there, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in what had been the New Year's Six bowls, with this season's national championship game scheduled for Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

All of that is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Apart from the playoff is the 36-game slate of bowl games, from the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 14 to the Bahamas Bowl on Jan. 4.

We're here for all of it.

ESPN bowl gurus Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach are projecting every postseason matchup, including their breakdowns of how the CFP will play out, every week until the actual matchups are set on Selection Day on Dec. 8.

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Playoff picks | Quarterfinals
Semis, title game | https://www.espn.com/college-football/insider/story/_/id/41235145/2024-college-football-playoff-bowl-projections-week-3-cfp#bowls">Bowl season

First-round games

Dec. 20-21 — ABC/ESPN or TNT Sports*
Bonagura: No. 12 Memphis at No. 5 Georgia
Schlabach: No. 12 Memphis at No. 5 Georgia

Bonagura: No. 11 Kansas State at No. 6 Alabama
Schlabach: No. 11