2026-27 Week 8 College Football Playoff, bowl projections - ESPN

Week 7 raised havoc, but Week 8 continued the mayhem as we witnessed more big wins and surprising upsets.

Five ranked teams fell to unranked opponents Saturday. The Big 12 got a big shake-up as No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 2 BYU suffered their first losses of the season. The Cougars fell in a double-overtime thriller against UCF. In the SEC, No. 19 Texas rebounded from back-to-back conference losses to pull off a big league victory over No. 7 Ole Miss.

Following all the chaos, we take a look at how the postseason picture shifted after Week 8.

New to the 2026 season, the Power 4 conference champions will receive automatic bids to the CFP along with the highest-ranked Group of 6 team regardless of whether it is a league champ. The remaining slots in the 12-team field will go to the next seven highest-ranked teams. Notre Dame is guaranteed a spot in the field if it is among the top 12 teams.

The four highest-ranked teams (not necessarily conference champions) will be awarded first-round byes. The other eight teams will meet in first-round games at the campus sites of seeds 5 through 8.

The festivities of bowl season kick off with the Cricket Celebration Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Dec. 12 and wrap up with the CFP National Championship at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Jan. 25.

ESPN bowl gurus Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach will make their predictions for all the postseason matchups every week of the season until the actual matchups are set Dec. 6.

All times Eastern

Jump to:
First-round games | Quarterfinals
Semis, title game | Bowl season

First-round games (at campus sites)

Friday, Dec. 18
8 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, Dec. 19
Noon, ABC/ESPN
3:30 p.m., TNT
7:30 p.m., TNT

Bonagura: No. 12 Boise State at No. 5