2024 Week 4 12-team College Football Playoff Prediction

Week four of the college football season had some important games as it pertains to shaping the landscape of the 12-team College Football Playoff. Thus, there are some shakeups in our projection of the field.

Perhaps the biggest game to impact the playoff race was Michigan's 27-24 win over USC. While it is hard to envision Michigan playing well enough for the rest of the season to earn a playoff spot, the Wolverines at least kept themselves in the conversation with a much-needed home win over a ranked team.

The bigger fallout, though is on the USC side of things. The Trojans entered the game looking like a playoff contender, especially with their manageable upcoming schedule.

Now, though, after being bullied by the Wolverines on both sides of the line of scrimmage, the Trojans once again look to be vulnerable in areas where teams must be rock solid to compete in the Big Ten. Southern California has questions to answer after failing to beat a team that only threw for 32 yards and didn't even try to pretend that the forward pass was going to be a staple of their offensive attack.

Another team that made a statement was Tennessee. The Volunteers entered Norman, Oklahoma, and came out with a physically dominant 25-15 win over the nation's No. 15 team. Now the Vols have two winnable games vs. Arkansas and lowly Florida before a showdown with No. 4 Alabama in Knoxville.

In the Big 12, Utah clearly established itself as the favorite by beating Oklahoma State on the road despite being withouth starting QB Cam Rising. The 22-19 win was far more convincing than the final score as the Utes led 22-3 at one point in the fourth quarter before allowing two late TD passes.

Needless to say, there were some shakeups in this week's playoff projection. So let's look at our latest projection of what the 12-team field might look like.

This week, two new teams, Utah and Missouri enter our rankings. Meanwhile, Kansas State and USC drop out after falling in week four. Missouri is a shaky candidate right now given that they have won their last two games at home over Boston College and Vanderbilt by just six and three points respectively but someone has to fill out the 12-team bracket and they are the best candidate at this point.

Meanwhile, Kansas State had to drop out of the slot reserved for the Big 12 champion following their dismantling at the hands of BYU. That allowed Utah to slide into the No. 4 spot in this week's projection.

This week, Alabama faces Georgia, Penn State takes on Illinois, and Boise State hosts Washington in games that could shake up our playoff ranking. So check in next week to see who might still be in line for a spot in the College Football Playoff.