This week, a little something different: The CFB Week 12 preview and the college football picks for the week are combined into one glorious article.
Last week, one of the big stories was how coaches kept getting fired. This week, it’s that we are now two College Football Playoff releases into November. The field is beginning to take shape. You know that Ohio State and Alabama will be there. What is of interest is who will the rest of those teams be? There are five automatic bids and seven at-large teams, and the possibility exists that we may even see a three-loss team sneak in under the right circumstances. If that does not make for an interesting finish to the 2025 season, then what will?
CFB Week 12 Preview: Latest CFP Rankings
In the video, we discuss the top team in the College Football Playoff projections. (1) Ohio State, (2) Indiana, (3) Texas A&M, and (4) Alabama are the teams on-track to receive a bye to the second round as of today.
The next six teams in the rankings are (5) Georgia, (6) Texas Tech, (7) Ole Miss, (8) Oregon, (9) Notre Dame, and (10) Texas. The official projections from media have (15) Miami as ACC champion and (24) South Florida as the highest Group of Five champion. We went with Miami in the video as well, but their conference record does not lend itself to the possibility of them playing for an ACC title. (16) Georgia Tech is 5-1 in the conference and is more likely to do so. Our future projections, from Week 13 on, will reflect our true projected conference champions, regardless of where they are in the standings.
Meaningful Games of the Week
There are four games we identified as being likely to impact the course of the CFP rankings for Week 13:
(9) Notre Dame at (22) Pittsburgh: This may not be a conference game, but both of these teams are sitting at two losses. Pitt may be able to push back into at-large contention with a win, but both are almost assuredly out with a loss.
(11) Oklahoma at (4) Alabama: The Sooners are sitting on two losses. They have put themselves in a position where, in essence, they must go into Tuscaloosa and win. Good luck.
(21) Iowa at (17) USC: At three losses, Iowa is most likely done for already, but USC is playing for something. They are six spots outside the CFP field, so every game from here is a must-win.
(10) Texas at (5) Georgia: This is a CFP-caliber game about to take place in Athens.
CFB Week 12 Preview: Picks
Meanwhile, the college football picks for Week 12 of the 2025 season are here, as each game grows more important than the last.
Sure, there are plenty of games which are not that important. For example, it does not matter whom UMass nor Middle Tennessee play this week. (It’s Northern Illinois and Western Kentucky, respectively, in case you were wondering.) Yet, these aren’t the games we are watching – there are plenty of games involving ranked teams, and a few of them this weekend will have a direct impact on the College Football Playoff field.
Please be sure to view our general disclaimers prior to viewing our picks.
