Chaos.
That's what college football delivered in the conference championship games, with No. 4 USC (11-2) seeing its hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff dashed in a 47-24 loss to Utah in the Pac-12 final on Friday night. Then on Saturday, No. 3 TCU fell 31-28 in overtime to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game, pushing the Horned Frogs to the playoff precipice.
Top-ranked Georgia (13-0) beat LSU 50-30 for the SEC title, while No. 2 Michigan (13-0) outlasted Purdue 43-22 late Saturday in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Bulldogs and Wolverines were largely considered shoo-ins for the four-team playoff even if they lost Saturday, so they'll be Nos. 1 and 2 when the playoff rankings come out Sunday.
USC's loss opened a path for No. 5 Ohio State (11-1) to make the playoff. The big question: Does No. 6 Alabama, with its two losses, jump ahead of 12-1 TCU or Ohio State? The guess here is no.
As for the Gophers (8-4), their most likely destination still appears to be the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 29 at Yankee Stadium. Long-shot possibilities could be the Music City Bowl on Dec. 31 in Nashville or the ReliaQuest Bowl on Jan. 2 in Tampa, Fla.
Here's our projection of the four playoff teams and New Year's Six bowls when they're announced beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN:
Fiesta (playoff semifinal), Dec. 31, Glendale, Ariz.: No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 TCU
Peach (playoff semifinal), Dec. 31, Atlanta: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 4 Ohio State
