Playoff Projection: Big 12 goes from zero entrants to two
The Big 12 was the lone Power Five conference not to place a team in the inaugural College Football Playoff. But if this season's four-team event were to be seeded today, the Big 12 might account for half the field.
The 13-person panel that votes in the Football Four Playoff Projection seeded TCU second and Baylor fourth in its latest projection released today. Those two programs finished sixth and fifth, respectively, in the inaugural seeding by the Playoff selection committee last December.
Utah, with a résumé that seems to strengthen with every win by the Utes and its Week 1 opponent Michigan, moved up three spots into the top seed this week, and last week's top seed Ohio State slipped to the No. 3 seed after a narrow escape Saturday at Indiana.
Each panelist enters a four-team ballot, with four points awarded for a No. 1 vote, three for a No. 2, two for a No. 3 and one for a No. 4.
Utah earned 29 voting points for the top seed, TCU earned 24, Ohio State earned 23 and Baylor had 18. Utah's point total is the lowest for a No. 1 seed in the two-plus years of the projection, and all four of the seeds received at least two first-place votes. The fact that eight teams received a second-place vote reflects the unusually wide-open nature of this year's Playoff chase.
Panelist Rich Brooks said he sees the Big 12 as the conference most likely to have an unbeaten team entering the Playoff, and fellow voter Jim Ross says that's key for the league. "The Big 12 winner likely has to run the table to squeeze into the final four," Ross said. "The sense of urgency is palpable in the Big 12 with no title game."
The Playoff Projection is in its third year. Its panel is based on the College Football Playoff selection committee's model and includes the former FBS coach Brooks and WWE Hall of Famer Ross, plus former FBS coaches Tommy Bowden and Jim Grobe, former FBS athletic directors Bill Byrne and Jim Livengood, Michigan State men's basketball coach and football aficionado Tom Izzo and Paste BN Sports college sports staff members Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder, Eddie Timanus, Daniel Uthman and Dan Wolken.
The projection is purely a mock selection with no bearing on the Playoff selection committee's decisions.
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