ESPN experts update College Football Playoff picks after Week 8
By Andrew Olson
Published:
The College Football Playoff race is heating up entering the home stretch of the 2023 season. As we look ahead to Week 9, ESPN’s experts predicted their College Football Playoff fields following Saturday’s action.
Georgia once again made all 15 ballots. After a wild Week 8, the Bulldogs are the only unanimous pick among the ESPN experts.
Washington was a unanimous pick after defeating Oregon in Week 7. The Huskies escaped against 1-win Arizona State with a narrow win in Week 8. UW is still 1 of the most popular picks, making 14-of-15 ballots.
Michigan picked up a new vote. The Wolverines improved to 8-0 by defeating rival Michigan State 49-0 in East Lansing. U-M is now on 14-of-15 ballots, up from 13 last week.
The biggest story is the shift for the 4th spot. The ESPN experts had been high on Florida State. Last week, FSU was on 11-of-15. The Seminoles beat a ranked team in Week 8, but made just 5-of-15 ballots among the ESPN experts.
Ohio State has surged with a defensive win over Penn State. The Buckeyes are on 12 ballots, after making just 1 ballot after Week 7. Despite each Power 5 conference currently having a No. 1 team, 2 B1G teams making the field of 4 again is looking more likely in the eyes of the ESPN experts.
A week ago, Oklahoma was on 5 ballots. The Sooners were not picked by any of the 15 experts after beating UCF by only 2 points in Week 8.
Here are the complete ballots:
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
