Group of Five hopefuls
It’ll take something miraculous to happen for any of these teams to get within sniffing distance of the College Football Playoff. The only possible way it works for any of them is to 1) go unbeaten, 2) be dominant doing it, and 3) hope for chaos in the Power Five championship games.
There can’t be four other options from the Power Five leagues.
Ranking the Group of Five programs still alive (sort of), but more realistically, the teams in the hunt for the Group of Five’s New Year’s Six bowl slot are …
American Athletic Conference
Ranked in order of most possible to least
1. Cincinnati
2. SMU
Alive for the New Year’s Six Bowl
3. Memphis
4. Houston
5. Temple
6. Tulsa
Conference USA
1. Marshall
2. Florida Atlantic
3. Rice
Alive for the New Year’s Six Bowl
4. UAB
Independents
1. BYU
2. Liberty
Mountain West
1. Air Force
Sun Belt
1. Coastal Carolina
Alive for the New Year’s Six Bowl
2. Appalachian State
3. Louisiana
4. Georgia Southern
– Teams that haven’t played yet, but …
– Finished. Done. Let’s go take a steam
– One-loss teams still alive
– Unbeaten College Football Playoff contenders