USA TODAY Playoff Predictor puts Georgia, Alabama atop CFP field with five SEC teams

Georgia and Alabama hold the top two spots in USA TODAY Sports' midseason College Football Playoff projection, and three more SEC teams also made the 12-team field.

In his weekly Playoff Predictor for USA TODAY Sports, senior national college football writer Matt Hayes seeds Georgia first and Alabama second. Ohio State and Notre Dame round out the four first-round byes. Hayes argues the sport has split into two tiers at the halfway point: a small group of real semifinal contenders and everyone else. He summed up the second group in two words: "Everyone else? Mid."

Hayes describes Georgia as physical and punishing, led by a fifth-year senior quarterback who doesn't make mistakes. On Alabama, he writes that this is the first time since Kalen DeBoer took over in Tuscaloosa that there is little doubt his team can beat anyone. He also says a Georgia-Alabama rematch in both the SEC Championship Game and the playoff would be a welcome result.

Three other SEC teams are in the projected field. Texas is seeded seventh, though Hayes points to a clunky offense and a struggling line that he says were hidden by the Longhorns' comeback against Ohio State and an ugly win over Tennessee. Ole Miss is ninth, and Hayes suggests its loss to Florida may have been a glitch that the next month of the schedule will test. Missouri is 10th, with a caveat that its two biggest wins came against Florida and Texas A&M, both of which are now struggling.

The projected first round has two all-SEC storylines in it. Missouri would go to Texas, and Ole Miss would visit UCLA. In the quarterfinals, Georgia would face the Ole Miss-UCLA winner and Alabama would get the Missouri-Texas winner.

Both top seeds have SEC games Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EDT. Georgia (6-0), now No. 1, hosts Auburn (3-2) on ESPN. The Bulldogs are favored at -1011 on Novig, one of the venues pricing the game, with a 19.5-point spread and a total of 49.5. Pinnacle's best sportsbook price on Georgia is -1167. Full numbers are on the Auburn at Georgia odds page.

The tougher test is in Knoxville, where No. 6 Alabama (5-1) visits No. 14 Tennessee (5-1) on ABC. Alabama is favored at -277 on Novig and by 7.5 points, with the total at 53.5. The best sportsbook price on the Crimson Tide is -275 at theScore Bet. See the Alabama at Tennessee odds page for more.

That makes Saturday the first real check on Hayes' claim that only a handful of teams belong at the top. A loss in Knoxville would knock Alabama out of bye position in next week's projection. Missouri and Ole Miss also play each other this weekend, so one of the SEC's projected at-large teams will come out of Oxford with a second loss.