Even January-March, I use my sports blog to post my constantly updating NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket projection. That projection is then incorporated into the nationally renowned Bracket Project. No such project exists, to my knowledge, for the College Football Playoff yet, but ever since the 12 team bracket began last fall, I have felt like its necessary to post my own projections of what the bracket will ultimately look like when the final bracket is revealed on December 6th.

Just to be clear, this is quite different than the “projected bracket” that the CFP publishes through ESPN every Tuesday night. That bracket is based on each team’s CFP rankings at the present time. Here, I am actually projecting out the rest of the season and publishing what I think the bracket will look like after all conference championship games are completed on Saturday December 5th.

First, you will see each team in my projected field listed in order of what seed I believe they will get. Below that list, you will see my projected schedule, where I place each playoff game into a projected time slot/location based on these rankings. Italicized teams are ones I am projecting to win their conference title game and thus receive automatic bids go the playoff. This week I have also added an additional column to these projections where I state what I believe each team needs to do down the stretch of the season to clinch a bid in this year’s College Football Playoff. This bracket projection has been updated through all games played on Saturday November 15th. 

	Predicted Playoff Field
1	Ohio State	Clinches bid with win over Rutgers or Michigan
2	Georgia	Clinches bid with win over Charlotte or Georgia Tech
3	Indiana	has already clinched bid to the CFP
4	Ole Miss	has already clinched bid to the CFP
5	Texas A & M	Clinches bid with win over Samford or Texas
6	Texas Tech	Clinches bid with win over West Virginia
7	Oregon	Clinches bid with wins over Southern Cal and Washington
8	Oklahoma	Clinches bid with wins over Missouri and LSU
9	Notre Dame	Clinches bid with wins over Syracuse and Stanford
10	Texas	Needs to beat Arkansas and Texas A & M to clinch bid and have Alabama and Vandy both lose on rivalry weekend
11	Georgia Tech	Needs to win ACC title game to clinch bid
12	North Texas	Needs to win AAC title game to clinch bid
	Other Contenders:
	Alabama	Needs to beat Eatern Illinois and Auburn to clinch bid
	BYU	Needs to win Big 12 title game to clinch bid
	Utah	Needs to win Big 12 title game to clinch bid
	Vanderbilt	Needs to beat KY and Tenn to clinch bid
	Southern Cal	Needs to beat Oregon and UCLA to clinch bid
	Michigan	Needs to beat Maryland and Ohio State to clinch bid

Projected Game Schedule:

First Round:

(6) Texas Tech vs. (11) Georgia Tech- Friday December 19th, 8:00 PM (ABC/ESPN)

(5) Texas A & M vs. (12) North Texas- Saturday December 20th, 12:00 (ABC/ESPN)

(7) Oregon vs. (10) Texas- Saturday December 20th, 4:00 (TNT)

(8) Oklahoma vs. (9) Notre Dame- Saturday December 20th, 8:00 (TNT)

Quarterfinals:

Cotton Bowl: (1) Ohio State vs. (8) Oklahoma/(9) Notre Dame winner- Wednesday December 31st, 7:30 (ESPN)

Orange Bowl: (2) Georgia vs. (7) Oregon/(10) Texas winner- Thursday January 1st, 12:00 (ESPN)

Rose Bowl: (3) Indiana vs. (6) Texas Tech/(11) Georgia Tech winner- Thursday January 1st, 4:00 (ESPN)

Sugar Bowl: (4) Ole Miss vs. (5) Texas A & M/(12) North Texas winner- Thursday January 1st, 8:00 (ESPN)

Semifinals:

Fiesta Bowl: Cotton Bowl winner vs. Sugar Bowl winner- Thursday January 8th, 7:30 (ESPN)

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Peach Bowl: Orange Bowl winner vs. Rose Bowl winner- Friday January 9th, 7:30 (ESPN)

Championship Game:

Fiesta Bowl winner vs. Peach Bowl winner- Monday January 19th, 7:30 (ESPN)