What to know about expanded College Football Playoff

The first-round winners will advance to the quarterfinals to play the conference champions granted the bye. Then the quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals — without being re-seeded — and so forth to the national championship game Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

Four of the New Year's Six bowls will host the quarterfinal games, with the remaining two hosting the semifinals.

What could the 12-team bracket look like this year?

The playoff committee released its newest rankings Tuesday with Oregon (11-0), Ohio State (9-1), Texas (9-1), Penn State (9-1) and Indiana (10-0) rounding out the top five.

The bracket, however, looks different. Here's how ESPN projected the bracket seedings as based on the committee's rankings.

Despite Big Ten members Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana being in the CFP top five, only the conference's leader — Oregon — could be slotted into a top-four seed.

Therefore, Ohio State could only reach as high as the No. 5 seed, Penn State as a No. 6 seed and Indiana the No. 7 seed based on the rankings order.

Texas, however, moves up from the No. 3 ranking to the No. 2 seed based on the fact that it's the second-highest ranked conference leader (SEC).

Boise State (9-1) is ranked No. 12 by the CFP but sits in the No. 4 seed by virtue of it being the fourth-highest ranked conference leader (Mountain West), ahead of No. 14-ranked BYU (9-1). That's so even though the Cougars are in a Power 4 conference (Big 12).

Could there be more playoff snubs this year?

As with any tournament requiring qualification, there will be teams disappointed not to be included. In 2023, when college football had a four-team playoff, undefeated Florida State was left out due to serious injuries to its starting and backup quarterbacks.

This season, the playoff committee's weighted criteria — such as strength of schedule and strength of record — plays a more significant role with the expanded field.

Entering Week 13, No. 11 Tennessee (8-2) and No. 13 SMU (9-1) are on the outside looking in.

That could all change after Saturday, just as No. 10-ranked Georgia (8-2) was on the outside of the bubble in Week 12 and found its way back in after an impressive win over the Volunteers.

The Big Ten and SEC look poised to have four teams each qualify while the ACC and Big 12 will likely have just their champions representing their conferences.

The Group of Five champion — as it stands now that would be Boise State, but it could be No. 19 Army or No. 20 Tulane — will surely only have one representative.

Notre Dame, an independent, is included by virtue of its 9-1 record, but another loss could knock it out of the CFP.