If the mere thought of a 9-3 College Football Playoff team makes you cringe, well, consider this a warning.
The chances of having a team — or two — in the 12-team Playoff with three losses seem pretty good right now.
What we learned about the CFP in Week 8, as the number of unbeaten teams dwindled to six, is that Vanderbilt isn’t just a fun story this year, Georgia Tech might be a team of destiny and the losses are piling up around the country.
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A weekend of upsets
It started Friday. Louisville knocked off No. 2 Miami in an ACC game that put the Cardinals (5-1, 2-1 ACC) back in the mix to win the conference and knocked the Hurricanes (5-1, 1-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Then Saturday, No. 7 Texas Tech went down at Arizona State, as the defending Big 12 champion showed it’s not ready to simply hand the league over to the Red Raiders’ high-priced portal all-stars.
It was tempting to pencil both Miami and Texas Tech into the Playoff field during their impressive starts to the season. And this weekend’s losses might just be detours on the way to the CFP. The Hurricanes’ odds of making the field, according to Austin Mock’s projections, are still 83 percent, fourth-best in the nation behind Ohio State, Indiana and Alabama.
Texas Tech’s CFP odds dropped to 57 percent.
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