This is as good of a time as any for our annual, repeated reminder that the College Football Playoff race is a marathon, not a sprint. Also, it’s time for the reminder that these are projections about where teams will end up in early December, not where they are in early September.

Yes, LSU looked worthy of a CFP berth in Saturday’s victory at Texas. Goodness, did that offense look ready for the big stage, at any rate.

The Tigers defense gave up a ton of points and yards, but that was a pretty good Texas offense, and Austin is a tough place to win any time.

LSU’s victory is the most impressive by anyone anywhere through Week 2 of the season.

Therein lies the difficulty of September resumes vs. December predictions.

Three of the best four teams in the country right now, based on talent and what little we have to go on in terms of results, reside in the SEC: Alabama, Georgia and LSU, in some order. Defending national champion Clemson is the last member of this foursome.

But will all three teams make the CFP semifinals? Is it even possible?

If one SEC team runs the table and two others end the season with only one loss, and nobody finishes unbeaten anywhere else, then yes. It’s possible.

Is that what we’re predicting? Not at this point.

So yes, LSU faithful, your team looks CFP-ready right now. Will that still be true in a couple of months after games against Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and Florida? Nobody outside of the SEC faces that many difficult tasks.

Put it this way: Get back to us if you beat Bama.

Elsewhere in our projections, we’re still not convinced about Ole Miss getting to six wins, but we cannot in good conscience keep Vanderbilt in this list after that blowout loss to Purdue. Losing to Georgia in the opener is one thing, but after Saturday’s result in West Lafayette, it’s now hard to see where the Commodores pick up six wins in 10 games in this league.

Now, on to our bowl projections:

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