College Football Playoff Selection Day is fast approaching. These five teams won’t make the cut, but should still be in the hunt for a national championship.
The world of college football is moving in the right direction. We now have a four-team playoff to determine the national champion of our great game which is a lot better than the antiquated bowl system of just a couple of years ago. It’s a novel idea, but the national championship is now largely decided on the actual field of play as opposed to a computer ranking system.
Still, the four-team playoff leaves a lot of us wanting more. If the FCS Championship can be determined using a larger playoff system, then why can’t the FBS schools do the same? Let’s face it, four teams is an arbitrary number that’s just the first step in the evolution of the College Football Playoff system at the FBS level.
A four-team format is still going to leave a lot of teams more disappointed than a kid who opens a bag full of coal on Christmas Day. The head coaches and players for four schools are going to be elated, but that still leaves a large number of teams who are going to be wondering what they could have done to crack this year’s Playoff. Hint: the answer for most of those schools is win a lot more games.
So let’s play the what if game. What if we were allowed a larger field than just four teams? What teams would have the best gripe about being left out? Read on to discover what five teams should still be alive for a national championship but won’t be come selection day.
Next: The loser of the Big Ten Championship game