Path To The Playoff: Teams that can make the College Football Playoff … with a LOT of help
11-14. Colorado Buffaloes (2-0), Oregon Ducks (3-0), USC Trojans (3-0), Washington Huskies (2-0)
Over the coming weeks, at least one of these teams will move up fast, but to make this work, two of them have to stay unbeaten …
– Preferably, Oregon and USC run the table.
– Colorado: at USC, at Arizona, Utah, Pac-12 Championship, and try to find one decent non-conference date.
– Oregon: at Oregon State, at Cal, Washington, Pac-12 Championship.
– USC: Colorado, Washington State, at UCLA, Pac-12 Championship.
– Washington: Stanford, at Oregon, Pac-12 Championship, and try to find one decent non-conference date.
– Realistically, the two teams in the Pac-12 Championship need to be unbeaten.
– At least two of the other three Power Five champions need to have multiple losses. That’s not an absolute, but it would be a huge help.
– The unbeaten Pac-12 champ needs to have a story. It has to be playing so well that it wouldn’t be a representative College Football Playoff without the Pac-12.
Will the Pac-12 Champion Make The College Football Playoff? There might be a much better chance at this than you might think. The teams higher on this have clearer paths, but they’re going to start dropping fast.
10. Wisconsin Badgers (2-1)
The 17-7 loss to Northwestern all but ended any College Football Playoff hopes in a shortened Big Ten season, but …
– Get healthy. The team was ripped up by COVID, and it’s having injury issues after just a few games.
– Beat Minnesota, Indiana, and win at Iowa.
– Northwestern has to lose two of its last three: at Michigan State, at Minnesota, Illinois.
– Go the the Big Ten Championship against (almost certainly) Ohio State, and win.
Will Wisconsin Get To Make The College Football Playoff? The Badgers need Northwestern to stall – that’s not an insane ask. The Wildcats could certainly get tripped up once, but it probably won’t happen twice. If it does, and considering how close Indiana came to beating Ohio State … still, no. It won’t happen, but there’s a path.
Path To The Playoff
– The desperate long shots
– Teams that will be told they can make the CFP (but really can’t)
– Teams that can make the CFP … with a little help
– Teams that control their CFP destiny
– 4 most likely teams to make the CFP