2024 Week 7 12-team College Football Playoff ranking predictions

Chaos seems to be in full effect as we're now less than a month out from the College Football Playoff selection committee dropping their first officials rankings of the 2024 season.

With five top-25 teams -- including four in the AP Top 12 -- taking losses last week, things are shaking up in terms of who is now expected to make a CFP run. That means our rankings are also seeing a bit of a shake up as well.

So let’s take a look as we enter Week 7 at how we expect the College Football Playoff bracket to shake out this fall based on what we have seen so far. To see where we were at entering last week, also check out what our projections entering Week 6 looked like before reading on.

How are these rankings determined?

Each week this season, HailWV will be releasing a prediction for what we expect the CFP field to look like -- it will not necessarily reflect what we expect the rankings themselves to look like each week, but how the field would be seeded. As a reminder, the official process for selecting the College Football Playoff (CFP) field is as follows:

"The CFP Selection Committee ranks the top 25 teams at the end of the season, and the 12 playoff participants consist of the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye. The schools seeded five through eight will host those seeded nine through 12 in first-round games. The quarterfinals and semifinals rotate annually among six bowl games – the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential and the Allstate Sugar Bowl."

- From the CFP website

PROJECTED 12-TEAM CFP FIELD ENTERING WEEK 7

DROPPED OUT: Alabama, Clemson, Rutgers

A bit of a shift occurred this week, with only 9-of-12 teams remaining in the projected bracket. Just 1 team maintained their previous ranking, while 2 new teams appear in the Top 4 seeds -- though one was already a visitor to the Top 4 earlier this season

Ohio State stayed steadfast at the top seed as the projected Big 10 Champion, with Texas jumping back into the 2-seed spot after three SEC Top 10 ranked programs fell last week. Texas replaces Alabama as SEC Champion favorites, with the Crimson Tide leaving the projected bracket altogether after a loss to unranked Vanderbilt exposed concerns that have circulated all season.

Iowa State is still the projected Big 12 champion and slid into the third seed, with the Miami Hurricanes dropping from third to eleventh in the projected bracket after another narrow, controversy-filled win as they had to rally from behind late to overcome Cal. Meanwhile, Pitt continues to gel as the season moves along and looks impressive, and are now our projected ACC Champions and have inherited the fourth seed.

The conference layout has also shifted this week, with only 3 SEC teams remaining in the projection. The Big 10 stays with 4 teams projected (though an undefeated Indiana replaces Rutgers after they suffered an uninspiring loss to Nebraska), while the Big 12 jumped to 2 teams again with an undefeated BYU earning a nod. The ACC jumps to two teams, but Clemson has dropped back out again in favor of Pitt.

Boise State is still in the fold as well, moving up to a projected 9th seed based on their continued climb up AP rankings, and the time remaining to further impress. If Oregon manages to knock off Ohio State in this weekend's marquee matchup, Boise's sole loss to the Ducks will look even better, and will allow more room for growth. Perhaps they could even knock the Big 12 or ACC champion out of the Top 4 if they perform strongly enough.