Boise State makes initial College Football Playoff bracket. Road trip to the SEC?

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — The season’s first College Football Playoff rankings were released Tuesday evening, and Boise State has found itself in the initial 12-team playoff bracket.

The Broncos were ranked No. 25 in the 25-team rankings, but as the highest-ranked team from a Group of 6 conference, were slotted into the No. 12 spot in the bracket.

While there’s still a month to go until the final bracket is released, the current rankings match up Boise State with No. 5 Alabama in the first round. The first round of the playoffs are played on-campus, meaning a trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, could be in the Broncos’ future.

The final CFP rankings and playoff bracket will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 6 — the weekend of all the league championship games.

Why did Boise State still make the 12-team bracket?

The 12-team CFP bracket includes the four conference champions from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC, the highest-ranked team from a Group of 6 conference, and seven at-large teams. The Group of 6 is composed of the other six FBS conferences: the Mountain West, American, Conference USA, Sun Belt, Mid-American, and Pac-12, the latter of which Boise State competes in.

Ranked No. 25, the Broncos are the only ranked team from those G6 conferences and therefore slot into the final spot in the bracket. While the CFP committee doesn’t rank teams beyond No. 25, the Mountain West’s New Mexico is likely the Broncos’ closest competitor. The Lobos are 7-1 with a loss to Michigan and are undefeated in conference play; they were ranked No. 22 in this week’s Associated Press poll, just two spots behind Boise State.

Boise State snuck into the final spot of the rankings with an overall record of 7-1 and an unblemished 4-0 record in Pac-12 play. The Broncos’ only loss came in the season opener at No. 23 Oregon, where they lost 34-27.

“Whatever publicity Boise State can get for our program, university, I think is great, but it matters nothing,” Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said Monday about the CFP committee’s rankings. “It’s the reality.”

The Broncos (7-1, 4-0) travel to Colorado State (3-5, 1-3) this weekend for a Pac-12 game in Fort Collins. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. on USA.

CFP Top 25

The CFP committee will release updated rankings every Tuesday until Dec. 6.

Rankings