*Seeds: According to Jett 

1 Georgia 

2 Ohio State 

3 Miami 

4 Oklahoma State 

5 Texas 

6 Ole Miss 

7 Alabama 

8 Oregon 

9 Tennessee 

10 Penn State

11 USC

12 UNLV 

Nine of the 12 spots are either SEC or Big Ten teams. Missouri is my first team out and worthy of being a playoff team. The SEC teams on the cusp of the playoffs (Ole Miss, Tennessee, Missouri) have favorable conference schedules, which will help them be 9-3 or 10-2 in playoff contention with a better resume than Big 12 and ACC teams in contention. 

Oklahoma State, of all the Big 12 teams, looks to be the most talented. Kansas State had help from their defense and special teams but was underwhelming against Arizona on offense. Utah quarterback Cam Rising sitting out with an injured hand makes me skeptical, just a week before a huge conference match-up against the Pokes. The next two weeks will settle a lot of questions about the Big 12 race. After their game next week in Stillwater, Oklahoma State travels to the Little Apple to play Kansas State on the road.

At the moment, nobody challenges Miami in the ACC for their automatic qualifier spot. There is not even a team in contention for an at-large spot at the moment.

The Group of Five AQ spot goes to UNLV. The Runnin’ Rebels are 2-0 against Big 12 teams, with two more opportunities to beat power five teams. UNLV hosts the Syracuse Orange a few weeks before traveling to Corvallis. The Runnin’ Rebels are the only Group of Five team to play four power conference opponents this season.

UNLV runs a unique offense. Coach Brennan Marion’s go-go offense shows glimpses of the modern-day T formation offense. Instead of having the quarterback under-center and three running backs in the backfield, he puts two running backs on the strong side of the quarterback and one running back on the weak side. The running backs on the strong side of the field are lead blockers for a counter play and the guard and tackle on the weak side pull to become lead blockers.

Matthew Sluka can also run with the ball. This results in defenses stacking the box and the Runnin’ Rebels can go deep to Ricky White and Jacob De Jesus. Marion is also known for finding versatility in his skill players. Running backs play receiver and receivers play running back, creating mismatches for the defense. The go-go offense confuses defenses and that has helped them reach 3-0 with two wins over Big 12 teams, despite Sluka having a 44% completion percentage.

*Seeds are not what the teams are ranked. Miami and Oklahoma State are not ranked third and fourth in the country. They are the third and fourth seed due to the top four highest-ranked conference champions being top four seeds and receiving byes. The fifth-highest-ranked conference champion gets a spot in the playoff. UNLV is not ranked 12th in the country.