Week 5 of the season finally gave us a glimpse of some presumed College Football Playoff contenders against stouter competition.
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It also might have reset what we thought about other contenders. Four teams ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll and in last week’s playoff picks — the LSU Tigers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida State Seminoles all lost.
While other CFP contenders had big weekends, the Ohio State Buckeyes continued to quietly take care of business, this time in their first road game of the season. Julian Sayin threw for 208 yards and OSU cruised past the Washington Huskies. While the Buckeyes travel to Illinois in two weeks, their next big test will likely come on Nov. 1 when they host Penn State.
Those Nittany Lions looked like they would take a big step in the Big Ten hierarchy, rallying from a 17-3 deficit to force overtime against the Oregon Ducks. However, after trading scores in the first overtime, Penn State QB Drew Allar threw a bad pick to end the game. Allar is now 0-6 against AP top 6-ranked opponents and James Franklin is 4-21 at Penn State when facing AP top-10 teams.
In the SEC, the Ole Miss Rebels notched a big win for their eventual CFP case by beating LSU. The Alabama Crimson Tide, which lost in their season opener to FSU, needed to avoid a second loss while facing Georgia. The Tide jumped out early like they did a year ago against the Bulldogs, and just like 2024, had to hold on for a tight win. Tide QB Ty Simpson threw for 276 yards and two scores.
Here are our experts’ top 12 College Football Playoff picks:
Andrea Adelson: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Penn State 7. Texas A&M 8. Indiana 9. Iowa State 10. Georgia Tech 11. Texas Tech 12. Memphis
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Penn State 8. Indiana 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Iowa State 12. Memphis
Bill Connelly: 1. Oregon 2. Ohio State 3. Ole Miss 4. Texas A&M 5. Miami 6. Texas Tech 7. Indiana 8. Vanderbilt 9. Iowa State 10. Georgia Tech 11. Missouri 12. Memphis
Eli Lederman: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas A&M 7. Indiana 8. Alabama 9. Penn State 10. Georgia 11. Texas Tech 12. South Florida
Max Olson: 1. Oregon 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Penn State 5. Texas A&M 6. Ole Miss 7. Georgia 8. Texas Tech 9. Indiana 10. Alabama 11. Iowa State 12. South Florida
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Ole Miss. 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Indiana 8. Texas A&M 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Penn State 12. Memphis
Mark Schlabach: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Texas A&M 5. Ole Miss 6. Texas Tech 7. Oklahoma 8. Indiana 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Penn State 12. South Florida
Jake Trotter: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Texas A&M 5. Ole Miss 6. Indiana 7. Oklahoma 8. Alabama 9. Texas Tech 10. Georgia 11. Iowa State 12. South Florida
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Indiana 8. Texas A&M 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Iowa State 12. Memphis
Dave Wilson: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Texas A&M 8. Indiana 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Penn State 12. North Texas
