First College Football Playoff Rankings Drop: Here's Who Would Make The 12-Team Field Today

The College Football Playoff committee released its initial rankings of the season, giving fans the first official look at how the postseason bracket would shape up if the campaign ended today, according to Sporting News and Yahoo Sports.

Based on that first ranking, 11 programs would be making their debut appearance in the Playoff field, a sign of how much the expanded format has shaken up access compared to the sport's old four-team era, Sporting News reported.

Yahoo Sports laid out what the bracket would look like under the current format if no more games were played, offering an early snapshot of seeding and matchups. Rankings will continue to shift in the coming weeks as results roll in before the committee finalizes the official field later in the season.

Why it matters

With so many newcomers in the projected mix, the early rankings underscore how the playoff's larger bracket is opening the door for programs that historically would have been on the outside looking in.