Clay Travis's Starting 11: Drama Filled Day Leaves ACC As a One Playoff League Edition

There was a college football multiverse where Iowa defeated Oregon and Penn State beat Indiana, which would have scrambled the college football playoff rankings immensely. But both teams posted stellar final drives to snag road victories in the last seconds and, as a result, the top of our rankings won't change very much and bedlam didn't rule the day.

But what did change was this: The ACC made it highly likely they will only get one playoff team this year after Louisville and Virginia both lost night games.

Coupled with Texas Tech's big win over undefeated BYU, the Big 12 also looks like a one-bid playoff league.

That opens the door for Notre Dame and a fifth SEC or fourth Big Ten playoff team.

We will discuss those scenarios below in the Starting 11.

1. Seven SEC teams remain alive for the playoff

Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, and Ole Miss look like solid playoff teams at this point since it would take multiple losses in the final three weeks of the season to knock any of these teams out of contention.

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA - NOVEMBER 08:  The Alabama Crimson Tide offense lines up against the LSU Tigers defense during the third quarter at Bryant-Denny Stadium on November 08, 2025 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Remaining in solid contention for a fifth playoff bid for the conference are three more teams: Texas, Vanderbilit, and Oklahoma.

The challenge for all these teams is to win out and then hope 10-2 gets them the nod as the fifth SEC team.

So what's left on the schedule?

Texas finishes with at Georgia, Arkansas and Texas A&M
Oklahoma finishes with at Alabama, Missouri, and LSU
Vanderbilt finishes with Kentucky and at Tennessee

As I've said since the 12-team playoff debuted, 10-2 in the SEC is going to get you in the playoff.

Since you guys love chaos scenarios, here's one for you: Oklahoma beats Alabama this weekend and Texas beats Georgia and Texas A&M. Then Vanderbilt wins out too, and every other top seven SEC team wins every other game.

You'd have SEVEN SEC teams finish with 10-2 records or better.

11-1 Texas A&M, 11-1 Ole Miss, 10-2 Texas, 10-2 Alabama, 10-2 Georgia, 10-2 Oklahoma, 10-2 Vanderbilt

Your SEC title game tiebreak would come down to 7-1 Texas A&M, 7-1 Texas, 7-1 Alabama and 7-1 Ole Miss, two of these teams would get in, but I'm not sure which two. (I assume Alabama gets in since the number one rule in the SEC rulebook is Alabama wins all tiebreaks, but I have no idea which would be the second team.)

But in this scenario, you'd probably end up with two 10-2 teams, Oklahoma and Vandy, left out of the playoff.

Which is the only way I could see 10-2 SEC teams not make the playoff.

Want your minds blown?

A 9-3 SEC team could still be in the mix too. If the top four teams keep winning then 9-3 Texas, 9-3 Oklahoma, or even 9-3 Vanderbilt or Tennessee could still be in the playoff mix too.

NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 08: Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia #2 drops back to pass during a game between the Vanderbilt Commodores and Auburn Tigers, November 8, 2025, at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Sidenote: how improbable is Vandy's playoff contention? If the Commodores beat suddenly surging Kentucky — the Wildcats are 4-1 in their last five against the Florida Gators after last night's beatdown — then Vandy would get to nine regular season wins for the first time since 1915. 1915! And that's not all. Vandy would then travel to Knoxville to take on Tennessee in a Commodore playoff game that would, frankly, probably be the biggest game in Vanderbilt football history.  

2. Five Big Ten teams remain alive for the playoff

Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon remain in very solid shape to notch playoff bids.

In fact, the Buckeyes and Hoosiers are essentially already in the playoff, but Oregon, which survived a donnybrook in the pouring rain at Iowa, still finishes with Minnesota, USC, and then at Washington. Running the table on those three won't be easy for Oregon, but at Iowa, to be fair, may have been the toughest of those three left on the schedule, so I wouldn't bet against the Ducks finishing 11-1.

IOWA CITY, IA - NOVEMBER 08: Oregon place kicker Atticus Sappington (36) celebrates with Oregon punter James Ferguson-Reynolds (46) after kicking a game-winning 36-yard field goal during a Big Ten Conference college football game between the Oregon Ducks and the Iowa Hawkeyes, on November 8, 2025, at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, IA. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Meanwhile Michigan and USC are still floating around on the periphery of the playoff race too.

Michigan closes with at Northwestern, at Maryland and then Ohio State in Ann Arbor. If the Wolverines were to win out, 10-2 Michigan, crazily, would bump Ohio State out of the Big Ten title game and Indiana would play the Wolverines. Unless USC also wins out, in which case there would be a three-way tie with one-loss Big Ten teams. The Trojans, yes, left for dead USC, finishes with Iowa, at Oregon, and UCLA and would probably be in the playoff if they won out, and not just that, likely in the Big Ten title game too.

It's not crazy to believe that USC at Oregon could be a default playoff game. Certainly it is for the Trojans.

So the Big Ten has three solid playoff bids, with the possibility of one more too.

But if I were betting, I'd put the Big Ten down for three playoff bids.    

3. Texas Tech whipped BYU to take control of the Big 12 race

The Red Raiders only have two games left in the season — Central Florida and then at West Virginia. I think you can pretty much pencil them in for one spot in the Big 12 title game.

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 08: Cameron Dickey #8 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders runs past a tackle attempt by Isaiah Glasker #16 of the BYU Cougars during the second half of the game at Jones AT&T Stadium on November 08, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas.  (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)

BYU still closes with TCU, at Cincinnati and UCF, which means the Cougars still have lots of work to do to get to the Big 12 title game.

But that's not all. Cincinnati, Houston, Utah and even Arizona State still have a title game pulse. The ultimate result of the remaining games, however, feels like the Big 12 will get one team in the playoff.

4. Every team in the ACC now has two losses on the season except for Georgia Tech

And Georgia Tech closes the season with Georgia, meaning the most likely scenario is for every ACC team to have two losses.

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - NOVEMBER 1: A cheerleader of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets waves a team flag during the game against the NC State Wolfpack at Carter-Finley Stadium on November 1, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)

As I wrote above, there's almost no pathway for the ACC to get two playoff teams at this point.

In fact, the only pathway I see is probably Georgia Tech wins out and then loses to Miami in the ACC title game.

Then 11-2 Miami would be in as the ACC champion and 11-2 Georgia Tech, with a win over Georgia, would be a very strong at-large contender.

Absent that exact scenario, I think the ACC will be a one bid league.

(10-3 Miami with an ACC title game loss vs. 10-2 Notre Dame would be a debate, but I think Miami with three losses in the back half of the schedule would lose that argument.)

5. Notre Dame continues to win and this coming weekend at Pittsburgh is probably their playoff game

Since the Fighting Irish close with Syracuse and at Stanford, beat Pitt and the Irish are finishing 10-2.

And I don't think the playoff committee will leave out a 10-2 Fighting Irish team.

So if you want Notre Dame left out of the playoff you need to be a diabolical Pitt Panthers fan this weekend.  

6. So what's the playoff look like at this point?

I would go with this scenario as the most likely: The ACC and Big 12 get one bid each, their champions, the non-power four conference team gets in, Notre Dame gets in, the Big Ten gets three teams and the SEC gets five teams.

Again, as discussed above, there are lots of moving parts here that could change these scenarios, but I think it's looking the most likely.

7. Thanks for supporting my new book, "Balls," which came out Tuesday

We moved to a new house in the Nashville area this week and I'm writing the Starting 11 from my new home office for the first time. I still pinch myself when I wake up on Sunday mornings — or am writing late on Saturday nights — that I get to watch college football and then write several thousand words about my favorite sport every Sunday, as I've been doing for over twenty years now.  

In my new home office directly to my left is an office bookshelf which now has five books I've written on it.

I don't know how many more books I'll write, if any, but as a kid growing up in Nashville, I used to visit bookstores and walk to the bookshelves and look at author last names until I found the spot where Travis would be on the bookshelves. Then I would stand and look at the place where I told myself one day my books would go.

I'm not sure how many people do this, but I started doing it around five years old, when I first started to read.

That was despite the fact that I didn't know a single author or have any idea what writing a book required.  

I just knew one day I was going to do it.

And forty-some odd years later there are now five different books by me on some bookstore shelves. And many of you reading this right now have read — or listened! — to all of them. Even though I do radio and TV daily, I still think of myself as a writer first because the only reason I ever got to do radio and TV was because of writing.

So thank all of you who have been with me since I started writing online back in 2004 and to any of you out there who may want to write your own books one day, sit down and start writing.

Here's a link to the latest book if you haven't checked it out already.

8. What does Vegas think of the national championship contenders at this point?

Ohio State 2-1
Indiana 5.5-1
Texas A&M 7-1
Alabama 8-1
Georgia 9.5 to 1
Notre Dame 11-1
Texas Tech 16-1
Oregon 17-1
Ole Miss 18-1
Texas 33-1
Oklahoma 45-1
Utah 70-1
Vanderbilt 80-1
USC 80-1

After nine teams, Vegas just basically throws its hands up in the air and says we have no idea.

9. We haven't talked much about the Heisman in the Starting 11 this year, but here's how I would rank the contenders if I had a ballot this year

1. Fernando Mendoza
2. Julian Sayin
3. Marcel Reed
4. Ty Simpson
5. Diego Pavia

I think all five of these guys deserve trips to New York.

If you asked me the most valuable non-quarterback it would be Jeremiah Smith.  

Mendoza's resume is pretty fixed since Indiana is 10-0 and doesn't have any major contests left in the regular season, but each of the remaining guys on this list still have an opportunity to post a signature achievement that propels them to the award.

One bit of thought here, am I the only person that feels like playoff talk has stripped the Heisman of its prominence? We used to debate the Heisman way more, it seems to me. Now it kind of feels like an afterthought.  

10. My Outkick Top Ten

Okay, here's the deal, the top eight are without question. You may quibble with my rankings of teams — was I too tough on Indiana, for instance, for the way they won late at Penn State? — but the top eight are established.

The tough call is who should teams nine and ten be?

And this is where I may be a dinosaur, but if two teams played and have the same record then I can't put the team that lost above the team that beat them. I just can't. The most sacrosanct rule in tiebreaks is the first tiebreak is head-to-head result.

So if Notre Dame is in my top ten then Miami has to be too.

With that in mind, I've got Georgia Tech, Texas and Oklahoma just outside my top ten and these are my current rankings below.

You can argue in my social media mentions if you disagree.  

1. Texas A&M
2. Ohio State
3. Alabama
4. Georgia
5. Indiana
6. Ole Miss
7. Oregon
8. Texas Tech
9. Miami
10. Notre Dame

11. SEC power rankings 1-16

This is the first time I've ever ranked SEC teams 1-16, looked back at them, and said, I legit don't think anyone could argue with any of these rankings.

They are perfect.

In fact, as we near the completion of the SEC season, the only real outlier outcome in conference games this year is Florida beating Texas. Otherwise, every team is ranked above the teams they beat.  

1. Texas A&M
2. Alabama
3. Georgia
4. Ole Miss
5. Texas
6. Vanderbilt
7. Oklahoma
8. Tennessee
9. Missouri
10. LSU
11. Kentucky
12. Florida
13. Mississippi State
14. Auburn
15. South Carolina
16. Arkansas