2024 College Football Playoff, bowl projections after Week 9 - ESPN

While there were no eye-popping upsets in Week 9, we saw a pair of Indiana schools outside the top 10 make a case for their inclusion in the College Football Playoff.

Indiana remained unbeaten with a convincing win over Washington, while Notre Dame emphatically handed Navy its first loss.

Elsewhere, surprising Texas A&M emerged as the last SEC team without a loss in conference play, while Penn State and Ohio State each had a bit of a scare before securing wins over Wisconsin and Nebraska to set up a Week 10 showdown between the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes.

What does it all mean for the College Football Playoff and the overall bowl picture?

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 the Nos. 5-8 seeds.

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 bowls, 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 (Dec. 8).

Jump to a section:
Playoff picks |