2026 College Football Playoff bracket projection: Chaos looms as SEC, Big Ten races tighten

As we get into the heart of the college football season, I find myself saying, "We'll learn a lot more about this team after (insert game here)." And that is likely true, but sometimes what we learn just makes the situation more complicated.

Take the SEC, for instance. Texas, Georgia and Alabama look like the clear top three right now. But how do you rank a group that includes Florida, LSU, Missouri, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee? Those rankings could get easier or more complicated with LSU playing Mississippi State, Ole Miss playing Missouri, and Florida playing Texas on Oct. 17.

Ole Miss (Vanderbilt), Florida (South Carolina), LSU (Kentucky) and Missouri (Texas A&M) all have tricky games this weekend that should be wins but could easily turn into losses, injecting more chaos into the situation. Alabama-Georgia is the headliner of the weekend, which should give us early clarity on Texas' top competition for the SEC title.

In the Big Ten, we have games like USC at Penn State and UCLA at Oregon that could either serve as resume builders or resume destroyers for playoff hopes. Interestingly, Penn State is still a favorite over USC despite dropping its last two…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/