If we thought Week 6 was wild, Week 7 raised havoc as five of the top seven teams in the AP top 25 poll lost in what was a college football weekend to remember. Six ranked matchups played out with the lower-ranked team winning four of them. No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 5 Indiana took their first losses of the season, while No. 3 Miami survived a nail-biter over Florida State in double overtime to remain undefeated.
New to the 2026 season, the Power 4 conference champions will receive automatic bids to the College Football Playoff, along with the highest-ranked Group of 6 team regardless of whether it is a league champion. The remaining slots in the 12-team field will go to the next seven highest-ranked teams. Notre Dame is guaranteed a spot if it is among the top 12 teams. The four highest-ranked teams, not necessarily conference champions, will receive first-round byes. The other eight teams will meet in first-round games at the campus sites of Seeds 5 through 8.
Bowl season kicks off with the Cricket Celebration Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Dec. 12 and wraps up with the CFP National Championship at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Jan. 25. ESPN bowl experts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach will make their predictions for all postseason matchups every week until the actual matchups are set on Dec. 6.
Bonagura and Schlabach project several first-round games, including No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Utah or UCLA, No. 11 Wake Forest or Tennessee at No. 6 UCLA or Notre Dame, and No. 10 Ole Miss or Utah at No. 7 Texas Tech or Ole Miss. Their quarterfinal picks feature matchups such as No. 8 Indiana against No. 1 BYU and No. 6 UCLA against No. 3 Ohio State, with the playoff bracket still taking shape.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing