ESPN’s experts gave college football fans their latest impressions of just how the College Football Playoff will look like when the dust settles in about a month from now.
It was an eventful Week 9 of the 2026 season, and in the wee hours of Sunday 12 ESPN experts gave their latest Playoff picks, complete with seeds 1 through 12.
We’ll start at the top, or at least currently at the top, where Miami was the No. 1 seed with all of the dozen experts after its latest escape, as the Hurricanes outlasted North Carolina on Saturday night in Chapel Hill.
As far as the SEC is concerned, there are a total of 6 teams from the mighty conference who are present among the 12 experts’ Playoff picks. Not surprisingly, Georgia leads the way for the SEC, making it onto all 12 of the experts’ picks after it easily brushed aside Florida on Saturday in Atlanta.
The Bulldogs are now No. 2 in the latest AP Poll as they get ready for a showdown in Week 10 at No. 12 Ole Miss, which made it onto 7 of the 12 experts’ Playoff lists.
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Surging Kentucky, which is riding high on a 6-game winning streak as it comes off a bye, was listed on all 12 of the experts’ lists, which is absolutely remarkable considering the history of the program. But as of right now, every one of the dozen ESPN experts believes Big Blue Nation will be going wild for their breakthrough team right into the Playoff.
The other 3 SEC teams that made it onto at least some of the experts’ lists included Texas as well as Alabama and LSU, which snuck its way onto 1 of the 12 experts’ lists. Interestingly, Alabama showed up on 5 of the 12 lists, as the Crimson Tide head to Death Valley on Saturday to face that LSU team in what could effectively be a Playoff elimination game in early November.
And with that, here are the latest Playoff picks from ESPN’s 12 experts:
Andrea Adelson: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Utah 5. Kentucky 6. Notre Dame 7. Wake Forest 8. Indiana 9. Texas 10. Ole Miss 11. Alabama 12. Boise State
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Miami 2. Utah 3. UCLA 4. Georgia 5. BYU 6. Notre Dame 7. Indiana 8. Kentucky 9. Wake Forest 10. Alabama 11. Ohio State 12. Boise State
Bill Connelly: 1. Miami 2. UCLA 3. Utah 4. Georgia 5. Notre Dame 6. Indiana 7. Kentucky 8. Wake Forest 9. Boise State 10. BYU 11. Texas Tech 12. Ole Miss
David Hale: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Kentucky 5. Notre Dame 6. Utah 7. Indiana 8. Wake Forest 9. Texas 10. Ole Miss 11. Alabama 12. UTSA
Eli Lederman: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Utah 5. Notre Dame 6. BYU 7. Indiana 8. Texas 9. Kentucky 10. Boise State 11. Wake Forest 12. Alabama
Max Olson: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. Indiana 4. Notre Dame 5. Utah 6. BYU 7. UCLA 8. Kentucky 9. Texas 10. Ohio State 11. Wake Forest 12. Boise State
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Kentucky 5. Utah 6. Notre Dame 7. Ole Miss 8. Texas 9. Wake Forest 10. Indiana 11. BYU 12. Boise State
Alex Scarborough: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Kentucky 5. Notre Dame 6. Indiana 7. Utah 8. Texas 9. LSU 10. BYU 11. Wake Forest 12. Boise State
Mark Schlabach: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Utah 5. Kentucky 6. Notre Dame 7. BYU 8. Texas 9. Alabama 10. Wake Forest 11. Indiana 12. Boise State
Jake Trotter: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Utah 5. Notre Dame 6. Kentucky 7. Indiana 8. Ole Miss 9. Wake Forest 10. BYU 11. Texas 12. Boise State
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Utah 5. Kentucky 6. Indiana 7. Notre Dame 8. Wake Forest 9. BYU 10. Texas 11. Ole Miss 12. Boise State
Dave Wilson: 1. Miami 2. Georgia 3. UCLA 4. Utah 5. Notre Dame 6. Kentucky 7. Indiana 8. Texas 9. Ole Miss 10. Wake Forest 11. BYU 12. Boise State
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.
