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. There is also an additional column to the right of each team 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 22nd.

	Predicted Playoff Field
1	Ohio State	has already clinched bid to the CFP
2	Georgia	has already clinched bid to the CFP
3	Indiana	has already clinched bid to the CFP
4	Texas Tech	Clinches bid with win over West Virginia
5	Ole Miss	has already clinched bid to the CFP
6	Texas A & M	has already clinched bid to the CFP
7	Oregon	Clinches bid with win over Washington
8	Oklahoma	Clinches bid with win over LSU
9	Notre Dame	Clinches bid with win over Stanford
10	Texas	Needs to beat Texas A & M to clinch bid and have Alabama or Oklahoma lose on rivalry weekend
11	Tulane	Needs to win AAC title game to clinch bid
12	Virginia	Needs to win ACC title game to clinch bid
	Other Contenders:
	Alabama	Needs to beat Auburn to clinch bid
	BYU	Needs to beat UCF and win Big 12 title game to clinch bid
	Utah	Needs to beat BYU and then win Big 12 title game to clinch bid
	Vanderbilt	Needs to beat Tenn and have two of the three lose one more game: Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama
	Michigan	Needs to beat Ohio State to clinch bid
	Miami-FL	Needs to beat Pitt and have all but one of the teams lose: OK, Alabama, Utah,, Vandy,

 Projected Game Schedule:

First Round:

(6) Texas A & M vs. (11) Tulane- Friday December 19th, 8:00 PM (ABC/ESPN)

(5) Ole Miss vs. (12) Virginia- 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: (4) Texas Tech vs. (5) Ole Miss/(12) Tulane winner- Wednesday December 31st, 7:30 (ESPN)

Orange Bowl: (3) Indiana vs. (6) Texas A & M/(11) Tulane winner- Thursday January 1st, 12:00 (ESPN)

Rose Bowl: (1) Ohio State vs. (8) Oklahoma/(9) Notre Dame winner- Thursday January 1st, 4:00 (ESPN)

Sugar Bowl: (2) Georgia vs. (7) Oregon/(10) Texas winner – Thursday January 1st, 8:00 (ESPN)

Semifinals:

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

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)