2. College Football Playoff Scenario: The Group of Five FINALLY Gets In
Any Three Power Five champions, and one Group of Five champion
0-for-24.
There have been 24 spots available in the six College Football Playoffs so far, and no champion from the American Athletic, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West or Sun Belt has come even close to getting in the thing.
Memphis was 17th in last year’s final CFP Rankings.
UCF was eighth in 2018, and 12th despite going 12-0 in 2017.
Western Michigan got the Group of Five’s throw-them-a-bone New Year’s Six spot by finishing 15th in 2016, Houston was 18th in 2015, and Boise State was 20th in 2014.
Again, not even close.
To be fair, there’s a reason. No matter what Group of Five fans and schools like to say, there really is a difference between going through a Power Five schedule and getting a lighter run – really, talent-wise, there is a difference from top-to-bottom – against a Gof5 slate matters.
That doesn’t mean that a massive bulk of the 130 college football teams are pretty much out of the College Football Playoff race before the first kickoff.
The answer continues to be a simple expansion – go to six with all Power Five champions and the top Group of Five champion, or even to eight – but that’s not happening.
For a Group of Five champ to get in, it has to 1) go 13-0, 2) do it while rolling past a few Power Five teams on the slate, and 3) get a total meltdown in the Power Five conferences with at least two of them finishing with a multi-loss league champion.
Even then, it’s going to be a huge reach for one of these programs to get into the top four.
So …