16. Kentucky Wildcats (6-1)
Kentucky is in the College Football Playoff if … you stop laughing and realize it’s more possible than you think. Kentucky wins out against a more-than-manageable schedule – at Mississippi State is the most dangerous game left – goes 11-1, and that one loss is last week’s tasteful 30-13 defeat against the be-all-end-all No. 1 Georgia team.
It’s all going to go wrong against … it might not. If it does, it’ll be in Starkville, but that’s in two weeks after getting time off to rest up. Either that, or the Tennessee offense goes off on November 6th.
Will Kentucky get into the College Football Playoff? No, but let’s just say you’ve been warned. Kentucky won’t get the 11-1 didn’t-win-its-own-division benefit of the doubt like Alabama did a few years ago, but if Cincinnati loses along the way, and if there are at least two multi-loss Power Five champions, it’s more possible than you might think.
Ranking the teams alive for the College Football Playoff
UTSA | San Diego State | Coastal Carolina
SMU | Texas A&M | Auburn | Ole Miss
Notre Dame | Kentucky | Cincinnati
Baylor | Pitt | NC State | Wake Forest
Ohio State | Oregon | Penn State | Iowa
Michigan State | Oklahoma St | Michigan
Alabama | Oklahoma | Georgia
Bowl Projections | CFN Rankings