It has been seven seasons since the College Football Playoff was established as the successor to the Bowl Championship Series, and in its first six years, the CFP has featured at least one rookie in its four-team field. Factor in the fact that anything can happen in the year of COVID-19, the 2020 postseason could very likely see some fresh faces.
Chip Patterson at CBS Sports took a look at seven schools most likely to reach the playoff promised land this season, with the Florida Gators leading the list of postseason contenders. Here is what Patterson had to say about the Gators’ chances of making CFP glory in 2020.
There’s an argument for Kyle Trask as the best quarterback in the SEC and Dan Mullen as one of the top coaches not only in the league but in the country. Trask has expectations that weren’t there when Feleipe Franks started the season in 2019, and the Gators are no longer finding their footing with Mullen but now expected to compete for the SEC title after back-to-back New Year’s Six bowl wins and postseason top-10 finishes. The 10-game schedule handed to the Gators sets up well for another strong season with two games likely to determine their playoff contention: at Texas A&M on Oct. 10 and the crucial SEC East-deciding Florida-Georgia game on Nov. 7. Now, it’s possible that there is an Alabama-in-2017 kind of path for Florida that would include losing the regular season date to Georgia and still making the playoff by winning every other game, but the easiest way to keep your playoff odds favorable is to have that quality win and a shot at the SEC championship with the committee tuned in looking to make its final decisions.
After Florida, the Texas Longhorns follow behind in second, while the Texas A&M Aggies and Auburn Tigers are tied for third, the Oklahoma State Cowboys sit at fifth, and the North Carolina Tar Heels and University of Central Florida Knights round out the list at sixth and seventh, respectively. Only Alabama (5), Clemson (5), Oklahoma (4) and Ohio State (3) have multiple appearances in the six years of the playoffs.
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