20 for 2020: 20 key college football offseason topics, No. 1: Five preseason College Football Playoff scenarios
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20 for 2020 Offseason Topics
20. Best Teams To Not Make CFP
19: Teams That Will Rebound Big
18. Teams That Will Fall Back
17: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
16. Top 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches
15. 2nd Year Coaches Who’ll Be Better
14. Power 5 Hot Seat Coach Rankings
13. Key Transfers You Forgot About
12. Five Big Power 5 Upset Alerts
11. Great Players About To Go Nuclear
10. Group of 5 Teams In New Year’s Six Chase
9. Power 5 Sleeper Teams
8. Most Interesting Quarterback Battles
7. 5 Teams That Might Disappoint
6. 5 Teams That Might Surprise
5. Group of Five Conference Ranking
4. Power 5 Conference Ranking
3. Top Non-Obvious Heisman Candidates
2. 5 Nutty Predictions That Might Be Right
We’ll keep on doing what we do whether or not there’s a season, but all thoughts go out to those suffering and struggling, and to all the health care workers battling above and beyond the call. Please … stay safe.
If there’s a College Football Playoff, who’s going to be in the thing?
There’s nothing fluky about a College Football Playoff national championship. Maybe you can get there with a relatively light schedule and a few big breaks – Utah and Baylor almost did it last year – but if it was so easy, a whole lot of others would be able to do it.
After six years, we sort of know how this all goes.
1. Go unbeaten and win your Power Five conference championship, and you’re in. It would take a historic anomaly – like all five conference champs going 13-0 – to miss out.
2. Go 12-1 with a Power Five conference championship, and realistically, you’re in. 2018 Ohio State is the first and only one to be left out.
3. Be an 11-1 powerhouse Power Five team that lost one tough battle, and you have a chance. You need help, but you can get there like 2016 Ohio State and 2017 Alabama.
Other than that, be Notre Dame and go 12-0 – and get a little help – and it can be done. The Group of Five programs, though, have yet to crack the code, and there has yet to be a two-loss team in the CFP.
With all that in mind, if we’re able to get a season this year, here are five possible College Football Playoff scenarios.
CFN in 60: 5 Possible College Football Playoff Scenarios
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5. College Football Playoff Scenario: The Chalk
Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma
There are two ways to look at this.
Either you have powerhouse fatigue and you’re bored of seeing the same teams over and over again – even LSU didn’t seem all that new, considering it was the SEC Champion – or you’re geeked out that these four programs are killers and should make for a strong tournament.
Could Oklahoma finally get over the hump and get into the national championship? Is it possible for Alabama to win a third one of these after not getting it done the last two seasons?
Will Clemson be able to come through with a third national title in five years, or could Ohio State get back to the CFP national championship in its fourth trip in seven playoffs?
Even if it’s not these four exact teams, if it’s any SEC champion, maybe a big-time Big Ten champ, and even a second SEC team in to go along with Clemson, it would be a whole lot of fun.
We’ll go into the problem if it’s anything other than a four-team powerhouse chalk CFP in a moment, but first …