College Football Playoff Predictions: Who Has the Best Chance to Make the Playoff?

The Texas Longhorns have a thing for huge top-10 wins in Week 2 of the season. A year ago, Quinn Ewers & Co. went to Tuscaloosa and defeated the then-No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide. That game helped the Longhorns reach last season’s College Football Playoff. A year later, Texas went to Ann Arbor and defeated the reigning champion Michigan Wolverines.

Texas dominated Saturday’s game against the No. 10 Wolverines. Ewers threw three touchdowns and Texas ran for 143 yards against a strong Michigan defense. The Wolverines couldn’t do much on offense. They were limited to 80 yards rushing and committed three turnovers.

The most shocking result came when the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish were upset at home by the Northern Illinois Huskies. Notre Dame was a 28.5-point favorite going into the game. Before Saturday, the Irish were 51-1 when favored by 25 or more points. The Huskies held the Irish to under 300 yards of total offense, intercepting Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard twice. Leonard’s final interception gave NIU the ball back with less than five minutes to play before Cannon Woodill won the game with a 35-yard field goal.

The rest of the top 15 in the AP poll saw a mix of more blowouts and tighter results than expected. Alabama faced another tough test from the South Florida Bulls, and the Oklahoma Sooners held on to the Houston Cougars after quarterback Jackson Arnold struggled for most of the game. Elsewhere, the Ohio State Buckeyes, Ole Miss Rebels, Missouri Tigers and Miami Hurricanes had big wins.

Here are our experts’ top 12 College Football Playoff picks (the Power 4 conference champions get the top four seeds):

Andrea Adelson: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Tennessee 7. Ole Miss 8. USC 9. 10. Alabama 11. Kansas State 12. Northern Illinois

Kyle Bonagura: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Alabama 7. Ole Miss 8. USC 9. Oregon 10. Missouri 11. Penn State 12. Boise State

Bill Connelly: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Ole Miss 7. Alabama 8. Penn State 9. Missouri 10. Tennessee 11. USC 12. UNLV

David Hale: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Ole Miss 7. Alabama 8. USC 9. Oregon 10. Clemson 11. Penn State 12. Memphis

Eli Lederman: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Oregon 7. Ole Miss 8. Penn State 9. Alabama 10. Tennessee 11. Missouri 12. Boise State

Chris Laag: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Tennessee 7. Ole Miss 8. Alabama 9. USC 10. Missouri 11. Penn State 12. UNLV

Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Tennessee 7. Alabama 8. USC 9. Penn State 10. Missouri 11. Kansas State 12. UNLV

Max Olson: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Iowa State 5. Texas 6. Ole Miss 7. Alabama 8. Penn State 9. Oregon 10. Tennessee 11. Utah 12. Boise State

Adam Rittenberg: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Tennessee 7. Ole Miss 8. Alabama 9. Penn State 10. USC 11. Kansas State 12. Memphis

Mark Schlabach: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Ole Miss 7. Tennessee 8. Penn State 9. Oregon 10. Missouri 11. Kansas State 12. Memphis

Jake Trotter: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Tennessee 7. Ole Miss 8. Alabama 9. Oregon 10. Penn State 11. USC 12. Boise State

Paolo Uggetti: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Tennessee 7. USC 8. Ole Miss 9. Oregon 10. Kansas State 11. Missouri 12. Memphis

Dave Wilson: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Utah 5. Texas 6. Ole Miss 7. Tennessee 8. Penn State 9. Alabama 10. USC 11. Kansas State 12. Memphis