College Football Playoff Predictions: CBS Sports predicts first CFP Top 25

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Ahead of the first College Football Playoff rankings reveal Tuesday night, the final predictions are rolling in. CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm tried his hand at predicting the top 25, and he had a surprising team in his top four.

TCU cracked CBS’ top four of the rankings, topping Clemson, Michigan and Alabama. The top three — Georgia, Tennessee and Ohio State — are almost identical to the AP Top 25, but there are still a few differences after that point.

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TCU is the most notable team to make a leap in Palm’s projections and squarely into the CFP picture if it were to hold true. The Horned Frogs are off to quite a start under new coach Sonny Dykes, taking an 8-0 record into this week’s game against Texas Tech.

Here are CBS Sports’ full predictions:

CBS Sports CFP Predictions

Florida State didn’t make this week’s AP poll, but the Seminoles’ hot start to the season is a big reason why they’re 5-3 this year. They lost three straight games before getting back on track with a win over Georgia Tech last week.

The CFP picture is all but certain to change next week, though. Georgia and Tennessee are virtual locks to be among the top teams in Tuesday’s rankings, but they’re on a collision course this weekend in Athens. In fact, on ESPN’s “Get Up” Tuesday morning, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum predicted the winner of Saturday’s game will end up topping next week’s rankings regardless of who the top team is heading into the matchup.

However, if he had to pick, he thinks the Volunteers will wind up on top going into Saturday.

“I think the committee will go with Tennessee [at No. 1] for this reason: They have the best win in the country,” Finebaum said. “That speaks for itself with the win two weeks ago in Knoxville over Alabama. After that, I think you can mix it up any way you want.

“Ohio State, to me, looks like the most complete team … but you never know what this committee is going to do. Sometimes, they value strength of schedule, sometimes, it’s the eye test. Whatever they do, it’s not going to matter for this reason, Greeny. Because the winner of Tennessee-Georgia Saturday will be No. 1 next week.”