ESPN’s panel of experts weighed in with their latest College Football Playoff picks after a Week 8 that saw some shakeup with plenty of ranked teams losing and plenty of movement in Sunday’s new AP Top 25.
The ESPN experts all had Miami as their No. 1 seed in a 12-team Playoff field that will be announced in December. The Hurricanes remained undefeated on Saturday with a blowout victory over Pittsburgh, as the Canes look toward a massive matchup against Notre Dame on Nov. 7.
Speaking of the Fighting Irish, they had a bye this past week as they try to shake off their loss to BYU in Week 7. Notre Dame was a part of all 12 experts’ Playoff picks, meaning they think the Irish will squeeze into the Playoff this time after being left out last year.
For SEC fans, Georgia, not surprisingly, was listed among the 12 experts’ picks, as the Bulldogs also had a bye this week as they get ready to face Florida next Saturday.
RELATED: Need the moneyline before you lock in a pick? SDS has the college football betting lines for every major game this weekend.
Interestingly, Alabama was listed among 3 of the 12 experts’ Playoff picks, as the Crimson Tide will try to squeeze into the Playoff with multiple losses again this year after pulling it off last season.
And perhaps even more interestingly, upstart Kentucky, which has won 6 straight games, was in all 12 of the experts’ Playoff field as of now, as Will Stein continues to blaze a trail of success in his first season.
Meanwhile, 2-loss Texas showed up in 7 of 12 experts’ Playoff picks following Saturday night’s thrilling victory over Ole Miss.
Of course, there is still a lot of football to be played, with 1 October Saturday left before November even arrives, so these Playoff picks from ESPN are absolutely fluid.
Here are the latest Playoff picks from ESPN’s 12 experts:
Andrea Adelson: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. UCLA 4. Georgia 5. Indiana 6. Utah 7. BYU 8. Notre Dame 9. Kentucky 10. Wake Forest 11. LSU 12. Boise State
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Miami, 2. Ohio State 3. UCLA 4. Utah 5. Georgia 6. Indiana 7. BYU 8. Notre Dame 9. Kentucky 10. Wake Forest 11. Alabama 12. Boise State
Bill Connelly: 1. Miami 2. Utah 3. UCLA 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Kentucky 8. Indiana 9. BYU 10. Arizona 11. Wake Forest 12. New Mexico
David Hale: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. UCLA 5. BYU 6. Notre Dame 7. Kentucky 8. Indiana 9. LSU 10. Utah 11. Texas 12. New Mexico
Eli Lederman: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Utah 5. Notre Dame 6. Indiana 7. UCLA 8. Kentucky 9. BYU 10. Alabama 11. Wake Forest 12. New Mexico
Max Olson: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Indiana 5. Notre Dame 6. BYU 7. Utah 8. UCLA 9. Kentucky 10. Texas 11. Alabama 12. Boise State
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Notre Dame 5. UCLA 6. Kentucky 7. Indiana 8. Utah 9. BYU 10. Texas 11. Ole Miss 12. Boise State
Alex Scarborough: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Notre Dame 5. Indiana 6. UCLA 7. Kentucky 8. Texas 9. Utah 10. BYU 11. LSU 12. Boise State
Mark Schlabach: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Notre Dame 5. UCLA 6. Indiana 7. Kentucky 8. Utah 9. BYU 10. Texas 11. Ole Miss 12. Boise State
Jake Trotter: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Notre Dame 5. Indiana 6. UCLA 7. Utah 8. Kentucky. 9. BYU 10. Texas 11. Arizona 12. Boise State
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. UCLA 5. Utah 6. BYU 7. Notre Dame 8. Kentucky 9. Indiana 10. LSU 11. Wake Forest 12. Boise State
Dave Wilson: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Notre Dame 5. UCLA 6. Indiana 7. Kentucky 8. Utah 9. BYU 10. Texas 11. LSU 12. Boise State
While the ESPN experts have their own opinions on the Playoff, here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the best odds to make the Playoff come December:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
