Which teams would make a 12-team CFP bracket right now

Why wait a few years before assembling an expanded College Football Playoff bracket when we can do it now?! Let’s celebrate college leaders finally agreeing on something that is good for the entire sport, coast to coast.

Using the current college football standings to create an imaginary 12-team playoff bracket based on the model adopted earlier this month by CFP executives, this 12-team model features (1) automatic qualifiers to the six highest-ranked conference champions and (2) six at-large selections to the next six highest-ranked teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions receive byes to the second round (independents are not eligible to receive a bye). We mostly used the polls for seeding, but put more of an emphasis on a team’s competition up to this point.

If a team has played a bunch of cupcakes (Michigan!), it will be reflected in its seeding.

Now, before fans become outraged, we are just three weeks into the season. We have a small sample size by which to judge teams, as we did not factor in preseason polls or last season’s results. The sample size is small enough that many teams don’t have a single quality win. Others just made the cut based on one game alone—App State (win at Texas A&M), Kentucky (victory at Florida), Oklahoma State (over Arizona State) and Arkansas (beating Cincinnati).