ESPN college football analyst Heather Dinich gave her new College Football Playoff projections after a Week 4 that contained some statement victories.
One of those statement wins came in South Florida, where No. 4 Miami stayed unbeaten by smothering Florida in a 26-7 beating that sent the Gators to their 3rd straight loss. Another thing it did was put Miami at No. 1 in Dinich’s Playoff projections, with the Hurricanes following big wins over Notre Dame and South Florida with a solid win over the Gators in primetime.
At No. 2 in Dinich’s rankings is defending national champion Ohio State, which had Week 4 off after reeling off 3 straight wins to open the season. The Buckeyes will finally play a road game for the first time in 2025, traveling out to face Washington in Week 5.
The top SEC team in Dinich’s rankings arrives at No. 3 with Georgia, which also is coming off a bye week that leads into this Saturday night’s showdown at home against Alabama.
Florida State checks in at No. 4, after the Seminoles stayed unbeaten with an easy win over Kent State on Saturday. The schedule gets a lot tougher for Florida State the next 2 weeks, with a trip to Virginia followed by a home showdown against Miami.
Filling out Dinich’s Playoff top 5 is LSU, with the unbeaten Tigers heading to Oxford this Saturday to face Ole Miss in what will be a telling game for both programs. The SEC parade continues for Dinich with Texas A&M coming in at No. 6 and Oklahoma being No. 7.
Big Ten powers Oregon and Penn State follow at No. 8 and 9, respectively, with yet another SEC team, Tennessee, filling out Dinich’s top 10.
Indiana and Texas Tech are ranked 11th and 12th, respectively, by Dinich, with so much more season still to come that will surely affect Dinich’s Playoff rankings going forward.
Here is Dinich’s full top 12:
- Miami
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Florida State
- LSU
- Texas A&M
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Penn State
- Tennessee
- Indiana
- Texas Tech
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.
