I always like to say that you don’t really find out how good a team is until they start playing conference games on the road. For example, let’s take a look at what just transpired in Week 6:

In each case, it was the losing team’s first conference game on the road — except for Tennessee, which won at Oklahoma earlier in the season, and USC, which is now 0-2 in Big Ten roadies.

And there could be more. No. 8 Miami is currently at trailing at Cal in the first half at time of publish. This is the Hurricanes’ third road game but their first in ACC play and first outside of the state of Florida.

The automatic qualifiers from last week’s bowl projections remain the same as none of those team’s have lost … yet; Miami is currently projected as the ACC champion and the No. 3 seed.

The at-large berths have changed a bit, though. Alabama dropped to sixth following the loss at Vanderbilt with Oregon moving up to the highest at-large berth at No. 5. 

Michigan, which was the projected 10-seed last week, has dropped out of the field. Clemson moves up to the Wolverines spot at No. 10, while Texas A&M rejoins the field as the 11-seed. The Aggies had been in my preseason projections but dropped out after season-opening loss to Notre Dame.

For those of you counting at home, that is four SEC teams, three from the Big Ten, two each from the Big 12 and ACC and 12-seed Boise State rounds out the list as the Group of Five representative from the Mountain West.

Quarterfinals

First round

Check back on Sunday morning for Jerry Palm’s full list of bowl projections.