2026-27 Week 3 College Football Playoff, bowl projections

Key Points:

• Week 3 of the college football season featured major upsets, including Ole Miss defeating LSU, which significantly impacted playoff projections by boosting Ole Miss and dropping LSU.
• New for the 2026 season, the College Football Playoff (CFP) will include 12 teams, with automatic bids for the Power 4 conference champions and the highest-ranked Group of 6 team; Notre Dame is guaranteed a spot if ranked in the top 12.
• The top four ranked teams will receive first-round byes, while seeds 5 through 8 host first-round games on campus sites from Dec. 18-19, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, and the national championship game in January.
• The bowl season begins Dec. 12 with the Cricket Celebration Bowl and concludes Jan. 25 with the CFP National Championship in Las Vegas, featuring numerous bowl games with expert predictions from ESPN analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach.
• Detailed schedules and matchups for first-round games, quarterfinals, semifinals, and bowl games are set, with some variations in predictions by Bonagura and Schlabach, highlighting key games and broadcast times across multiple networks.