The first College Football Playoff Rankings are set to be revealed on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
While college football fans are eager for the first official 12-team bracket preview of what is to come for the actual bracket in December, there is still plenty of games left to be played.
Meanwhile, we are entering the homestretch for high school football. Many states have already entered the postseason, while weeks and weeks of the regular season have given us a clearer picture of which teams are the best in the nation.
Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA) continues to be the No. 1 team in the USA TODAY Sports Super 25 rankings this week, with St. Thomas Aquinas
(Fort Lauderdale, FL) nipping at its heels at No. 2.
While we don't actually have a national playoff for high school football, here's a look at what a bracket for a potential high school playoff would look like, based on the latest Super 25 rankings.
USA TODAY Sports Super 25 rankings playoff bracket
First things first, the top five seeds would go to the top teams in each of the regions in the Super 15 rankings.
With Brownsburg (IN) earning the No. 14 ranking in the Super 25, the Bulldogs leapfrog into the playoffs, knocking out No. 12 Baylor (Chattanooga, TN) from a playoff spot entirely.
Here's a look at how the top five seeds break down:
- West: No. 1 Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA), 10-0
- Southeast: No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, FL), 10-0
- Southwest: No. 4 Allen (TX), 9-0
- East: No. 10 The St. James Academy (Springfield, VA), 8-1
- Midwest: No. 14 Brownsburg (IN), 10-0
From there, as is the case with the CFP, the top four seeds earn a bye in the first round and advance to the quarterfinals. So while Brownsburg earns a playoff berth, it would still have to play in the first round.
First-round byes:
- Santa Margarita (CA)
- St. Thomas Aquinas (FL)
- Allen (TX)
- The St. James Academy (VA)
This sets the stage for our first-round matchups:
- No. 5 Brownsburg vs. No. 12 Carrollton (GA)
- No. 6 Buford (GA) vs. No. 11 Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, CA)
- No. 7 Columbus (Miami, FL) vs. North Crowley (Fort Worth, TX)
- No. 8 Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, NV) vs. No. 9 IMG Academy (Bradenton, FL)
Finally, as is the case with the CFP bracket, there will be plenty of schools that will state they have a case and call themselves snubs.
And these teams definitely have a case for the playoffs, but a 12-team bracket limits who gets in and who is left out.
Here are the next four teams left out of our 12-team bracket:
- No. 12 Baylor (Chattanooga, TN), 10-0
- No. 12 Thomas County Central (Thomasville, GA), 9-0
- No. 15 De La Salle (Concord, CA), 9-0
- No. 16 Hough (Cornelius, NC), 10-0
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What if high school football had a 12-team national playoff? Here's our Super 25 field
