ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy thinks 11 teams are College Football Playoff locks including three teams from the SEC.
McElroy thinks that the Texas Longhorns, Georgia Bulldogs, and Tennessee Volunteers are all locks to make the playoff regardless of what happens in the SEC championship game.
Georgia and Tennessee are two of McElroy’s three two-loss teams that he thinks are playoff locks along with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
McElroy has Oregon, Penn State, Notre Dame, and Indiana are all also playoff locks. Of course, the highest ranked Group of Five champion (currently Boise State), ACC championship winner (SMU versus Clemson) and Big 12 championship winner (Arizona State versus Iowa State) are all guaranteed a playoff berth.
So that leaves one remaining spot up for grabs among Miami, Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina. Last week, the selection committee ranked Alabama ahead of Ole Miss and South Carolina, so it is hard to envision the order of those rankings changing unless the committee is really impressed with South Carolina’s win over Clemson.
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The interesting thing to watch will be if the committee ranks two-loss Miami behind three-loss Alabama. The committee previously ranked a one-loss Miami team over a two-loss Alabama team, but the committee has been known to favor Alabama when in doubt (see the final two playoff rankings in 2022 and 2023).
One dark horse that McElroy did not mention is the SMU Mustangs. SMU is a one-loss team entering the ACC championship and if they lose to Clemson, then the Mustangs have a strong case to still make the playoff as the No. 11 seed.
How to watch College Football Playoff rankings show
TV Channel: ESPN
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College Football Playoff rankings release date:
Date: Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 7:00 p.m. ET