CFB Playoff Picture, Standings and Bracket Predictions After Week 6 of 2025-26 Season

The Penn State Nittany Lions and Texas Longhorns are not just in danger of missing the College Football Playoff, but not being included in the discussion at all in the latter part of the college football season.

That's the reality facing both the Nittany Lions and Longhorns after their Week 6 defeats.

Penn State fell to the UCLA Bruins, a game it was favored in by 24 points, while Texas dropped a road result to the Florida Gators.

Both teams will drop out of the top 10 in Sunday's polls, and with one more loss, each program could drop out of relevancy in the 2025 campaign.

The Florida State Seminoles fell into the same category as Penn State and Texas on Saturday night, as they suffered their second defeat at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes.

Penn State Now Has Bleak Playoff Outlook

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Penn State's loss to UCLA was the most shocking result of Saturday's first two windows.

The loss put the Nittany Lions on the brink of CFB Playoff irrelevancy. They now have two losses and little margin for error.

The loss to Oregon last week looked okay on the overall resume because the Ducks are arguably one of the top two teams in the country,

However, a road defeat against a program that already fired its coach is unacceptable by Penn State's lofty standards.

At minimum, the Nittany Lions will drop out of the top 12 in Sunday's AP Top 25. They likely have two must-win games on their hands against the Ohio State Buckeyes and Indiana Hoosiers.

If they lose either of those games, it will be hard to justify a three-loss Penn State over a handful of two-loss SEC teams and potentially a two-loss Notre Dame back in the picture.

Texas Drops Second Road Game

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Texas is 0-2 away from Austin.

Arch Manning and Co. fell to Florida on Saturday in a game that the Gators controlled from the start.

Texas has now lost both of the games that mattered in the CFB Playoff picture to Florida and in Week 1 to Ohio State.

The good news for the Longhorns is they have ample opportunities to leap back into the playoff discussion, starting with the Red River Rivalry next week against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Texas still has to play the Georgia Bulldogs and Texas A&M Aggies as well in SEC play. There's a chance the Longhorns go 3-0 in those games and rally back into the top 12.

For now, the Longhorns have more questions than answers in the Manning era after starting the season on top of the polls.

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