2025 Week 3 12-team College Football Playoff prediction: The SEC adds another

Greg Sankey’s dream is to have the SEC gobble up all seven at-large spots in the 12-team College Football Playoff and have eight teams competing for the national championship. That’s a little far-fetched, even he’d probably concede that, but after Texas A&M knocked off Notre Dame on Saturday in South Bend, five SEC teams isn’t a stretch at all. Another Clemson loss didn’t hurt either.

All of the conference’s top contenders have shown real flaws so far this year. LSU can’t score, only putting up 20 points on Florida despite intercepting DJ Lagway five times. Texas has a big Arch Manning problem after he threw 10 straight incompletions against UTEP in Week 3 and was booed by his home fans in Austin. Georgia can’t block, and Alabama, despite pounding ULM and Wisconsin in back-to-back weeks, still can’t run the ball. 

Which team is going to win the conference remains a mystery three weeks into the season, so there’s no reason not to include the Aggies and the Oklahoma Sooners in the mix after their statement wins the past two Saturdays. After pushing Georgia to the brink at Neyland Stadium in Week 3, Tennessee deserves a place in that discussion as well. 

With Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon, the Big Ten could have the three best teams in the country, but the SEC, as it seemingly always does, boasts depth that its rival conference simply cannot match, and that could make for an SEC-heavy playoff. In my latest 12-team CFP prediction after three weeks of football, I have five SEC teams in the mix. 

Last week, I said that Oklahoma was my fifth-best team in the SEC. I still feel confident in that opinion, but I couldn’t find a place for the Sooners in last week’s prediction, and Texas A&M snatched it from them this week. Putting the Aggies over the Sooners has everything to do with the upcoming schedule. 

Brent Venables' team, after opening SEC play with a suddenly formidable Auburn team in Week 4, closes the rest of the SEC slate with Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU. That’s a brutal stretch of games with six of those seven teams currently ranked inside the top 25 and far too many opportunities for Oklahoma to slip up. 

Texas A&M, on the other hand, still has upcoming matchups with Mississippi State, Florida, and Arkansas while avoiding Georgia and Alabama. A 10-2 Aggies team with a road win over Notre Dame and losses to LSU and Texas would absolutely get a seat at the table. 

Elsewhere, there isn’t much movement for me. I still believe in Nebraska as a Big Ten dark horse, and that theory will be tested in Week 4 as the Cornhuskers play Michigan, but there is a noticeable change at No. 12. While USF lost to Miami, Tulane took care of Duke. The Bulls still have the more impressive wins, beating Boise State and Florida, but their offense is too boom-or-bust to rely on, so I’m making the switch to the Green Wave in the American. 

Here’s a look at my full 12-team College Football Playoff prediction after Week 3: