2026 72-Team Double Elimination Tournament

Current bracket

Week 5: Losers Bracket Reduction Round

This week, the LSU Football Report 72-Team Double-Elimination Tournament shifts its focus entirely to the losers bracket. With only four undefeated teams remaining and no head-to-head tournament matchups among them, Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Florida receive tournament byes while the losers bracket plays down.

Two matchups take priority because the teams actually meet on the field Saturday: Ohio State at Iowa and Michigan at Minnesota. Both are confirmed on the Week 5 schedule, so the actual game results will determine who advances. 

Utah and UCLA are both off this weekend, so they are paired against each other under the tournament’s bye-team rule. The remaining one-loss teams are paired according to tournament seeding, with the highest remaining seed facing the lowest remaining seed.

After this round, the losers bracket will be cut from 16 teams to eight, bringing it much closer to the four-team winners bracket and setting up the next stage of the double-elimination tournament.

Tournament Rules

  1. 72 teams begin the tournament.
  2. Week 0 — Play-In Round: 16 teams compete in 8 games. The eight winners join 56 teams with byes to create the 64-team main bracket.
  3. Double Elimination: Every team must lose twice to be eliminated. The first loss sends a team to the losers bracket. The second loss eliminates it.
  4. Head-to-Head Priority: The bracket may be reshuffled each week to match teams that are actually scheduled to play one another.
  5. Head-to-Head Games: If two tournament opponents actually play each other, the real game’s winner advances.
  6. No Head-to-Head Game: If tournament opponents aren’t playing each other, the winner is determined by a 100-point Weekly Performance Score:
    • 35% Game result/performance
    • 30% Quality of opponent
    • 20% Strength of schedule
    • 10% Home/road/neutral difficulty
    • 5% Margin of victory or loss
  7. Not All Wins and Losses Are Equal: A win is strongly rewarded, but an exceptional performance against an elite opponent can score higher than an easy win against a weak opponent.
  8. Two losses and you’re out. The tournament continues until one champion remains.