We’re still a couple of weeks away from the first release of the College Football Playoff rankings, but we got our first look at the CFP odds from FiveThirtyEight this week.
I’ll admit it up front — I’m a big fan of FiveThirtyEight. It took me a while to get on board with analytics and numbers, but as soon as I embraced them as a softball coach, I’ve been fascinated with the story numbers can tell. Analytics don’t give you the whole picture, but they do provide insight on portions of the overall picture, and anyone who coaches these days should be using them in some form or fashion or risk falling behind the curve.
We’ve also been following the ESPN Playoff Predictor, and that’s all good and fun, but I feel like FiveThirtyEight has a better handle on this stuff since that’s right in the sweet spot of what the website is designed for.
So what teams have the best chance of making the CFP? Where is Ohio State who has probably been playing better than any team as of late? What about Georgia and Alabama, or the rest of the Big Ten teams in contention.
Here is a look at the teams that currently have a 3% or greater chance of making the College Football Playoff after Week 6 according to FiveThirtyEight.