College Football Playoff, bowl projections after Week 5 - ESPN

Week 5 of the college football season featured a series of heavyweight battles, headlined by Oregon beating Penn State in double overtime, Alabama posting a huge road win at Georgia and Ole Miss knocking off LSU.

But there were surprises and close calls up and down the scoreboard, resulting in the biggest shakeup yet in the College Football Playoff and bowl pictures.

As in last season's inaugural 12-team CFP, the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams, will make the field. Unlike last year, 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 Nos. 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. 19 at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium.

All of that is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Apart from the playoff is the 35-game slate of bowl games, beginning with the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 13.

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 playoff will play out, and we'll be back every week of the season until the actual matchups are set.

Jump to a section:
Playoff picks | Quarterfinals
Semis, title game | Bowl season

First-round games (at campus sites)

Friday, Dec. 19/ Saturday, Dec. 20

Times and networks TBD.

Bonagura: No. 12 Memphis at No. 5 Oklahoma
Schlabach: No. 12 South Florida at No. 5 Ole Miss

Bonagura: No. 11 Iowa State at No. 6 Penn State
Schlabach: No. 11 Penn State at No. 6 Texas Tech

Bonagura: No.