USC Shock, Big Ten Upsets Reshape Playoff Field

College football’s postseason picture shifted sharply on Saturday as five ranked teams lost to unranked opponents. The most dramatic result involved USC, which defeated No. 2 Ohio State in a home game. This victory marked the first time Lincoln Riley, USC’s head coach, secured a win against an AP top-five team. Ohio State now enters the tournament as the 11th seed, while USC remains in contention for a higher placement.

The Big Ten conference suffered multiple setbacks. Iowa State beat No. 24 Oklahoma State, and Iowa defeated No. 25 Wisconsin. These results, combined with home victories by unranked Syracuse and Oregon, left several conference champions and highly ranked teams vulnerable. The losses forced a reshuffling of the remaining slots in the 12-team field.

The 2026 season introduces a new format for the College Football Playoff. Automatic bids go to the four Power 4 conference champions and the highest-ranked Group of 6 team. The remaining seven spots belong to the next highest-ranked teams. Notre Dame holds a special guarantee; if it finishes in the top 12, it receives a bid regardless of its conference standing. The top four ranked teams earn first-round byes, while the other eight teams play in their first games at the campus sites of seeds five through eight.

ESPN analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach project the first-round matchups based on current rankings. Bonagura predicts No. 12 Boise State will play No. 5 BYU, while Schlabach sees Boise State facing No. 5 Kentucky. For the Notre Dame game, Bonagura projects No. 11 Ohio State as the visitor, whereas Schlabach picks No. 11 Indiana. Alabama and Wake Forest also appear in the first-round projections, with the two analysts disagreeing on which teams face No. 7 Indiana and No. 8 Kentucky.

Bowl season begins on Dec. 12 with the Cricket Celebration Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The tournament concludes with the national championship game on Jan. 25 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Quarterfinal games are scheduled for Dec. 30 and Jan. 1. The semifinals will take place on Jan. 14 and 15 in Miami and New Orleans. Selection Day, when official matchups are set, occurs on Dec. 6.

The remaining bowl games fill out the schedule through Jan. 2. Notable matchups include Michigan versus Cincinnati in the Cactus Bowl and Iowa versus LSU in the Citrus Bowl. These games feature teams that narrowly missed the playoff or secured at-large bids. The schedule spans multiple time zones and venues, from San Diego to New York. All games air on major sports networks, including ESPN, ABC, and TNT.