Even on a weekend when most of the teams in the top were either off or not faced with significant challenges, college football again delivered surprising results that shaped the playoff picture.
And with those results in Week 4, there’s a new look to the CFP field in the latest edition of the USA TODAY Sports bowl projections. There’s two like-for-like swaps among Big Ten and Big 12 teams. Indiana steps in for Illinois after the Hoosiers dominated the Ilini. And Texas Tech assumed Utah’s place after a road win in Salt Lake City.
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One change that wasn’t made came with the Group of Five representative. Tulane did lose handily at Mississippi and Memphis surprised Arkansas. But the Green Wave still have the edge in the American and already have pocketed two Power Four wins.
This coming weekend will be the last of September and also the first major inflection point of the season. Not much has changed with the top contenders outside the slips of Clemson and Alabama. We’ll know more about Penn State and Oregon and also whether the Crimson Tide can get back into the picture with a defeat of Georgia.
Note: Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season.