Way back when the first batch of College Football Playoff rankings were released midway through the 2024 season, the Oregon Ducks were ranked No. 1 in the nation. That didn’t change over the course of the season, with Dan Lanning’s team taking care of business each and every week, culminating in a Big Ten Conference Championship win over the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday night.
This victory earned Oregon the No. 1 overall seed in the final playoff rankings of the year, clinching a first-round bye in the postseason and a game in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Here’s a look at how the rest of the playoff field shook out beyond the Ducks.
College Football Playoff bracket: Who’s in, who’s out
For the most part, we left Saturday night with a pretty good idea of which teams would be in the playoffs, and which teams would be on the outside looking in. However, the major question was if the committee would give the nod to a three-loss Alabama Crimson Tide team, or a two-loss SMU Mustangs team that lost to the Clemson Tigers in the ACC Championship on Saturday.
The committee ended up shucking the ESPN/SEC narrative and including SMU in the bracket, rather than the Crimson Tide.
Latest CFP seeds
- Oregon Ducks*
- Georgia Bulldogs*
- Boise State Broncos*
- Arizona State Sun Devils*
- Texas Longhorns
- Penn State Nittany Lions
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Indiana Hoosiers
- SMU Mustangs
- Clemson Tigers
Oregon’s projected CFP opponent
As the No. 1 overall seed, the Ducks get a first-round bye in the playoffs, followed by a game vs. the winner of the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed. In this case, that means that Oregon would play either the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Tennessee Volunteers on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, California.
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