So What Would the 12-Team Playoff Look Like With These Initial Rankings

 For over a decade, I've called for a 12-team playoff. We will get it soon, but not this year. With the College Football Playoff committee releasing their first rankings for the 2022 season, what would that 12-team playoff look like right now?

Here we go:

FIRST ROUND BYES
1-Tennessee
2-Ohio State
3-Clemson
4-TCU

Remember that the four highest ranked conference champions get the byes. Of course, there are no actual conference champions named, so we'll assume the top ranked team of each conference is the defacto champion.

FIRST ROUND GAMES
12-Tulane at 5-Georgia
11-Ole Miss at 6-Michigan
10-LSU at 7-Alabama
9-USC at 8-Oregon

There's quite the rub here. For one, we get two conference matchups of the four games. LSU-Alabama happens this week while we may be treated to a USC-Oregon game in December. Also, Tulane is the sixth highest ranked conference champion, so we get to see them take on ... AP #1 Georgia. 

What will be cool is to see playoff games between the hedges, at the Big House, in loud Eugene and at Bama. Even if it is in games we may have already watched.

SECOND ROUND GAMES

Oregon/USC vs 1-Tennessee
Alabama/LSU vs 2-Ohio State
Michigan/Ole Miss vs 3-Clemson
Georgia/Tulane vs 4-TCU