Bowl projections: Tennessee joins playoff field, Kansas State moves up

The college football season will pass the first-quarter mark this week and the playoff field should start to gather more focus in Week 4 as conference play heats up. That leads to some further changes to this week’s bowl projections.

An inflection point comes Saturday when Oklahoma hosts Tennessee as the Sooners start their inaugural SEC season with an early challenge. The visiting Volunteers are the ones expected to win and that victory allows them to edge out Mississippi as the fourth SEC team in the field. There’s not much between the two teams but the quality of victory for Tennessee gives it the advantage for now.

In one other significant change to the field, Kansas State has swapped places with Big 12 counterpart Utah. The Wildcats, off their impressive win against Arizona, now are in a spot reserved for a conference champion, while the Utes fall back to at-large status. There could be more movement ahead with Utah visiting Oklahoma State in an early showdown in the league.

Note: Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season.