College Football Playoff chaos theory: Anarchy that will shake-up the status quo

Don’t mess this up, stupid

Clemson Tigers: 10-0 (7-0)

For as much as we absolutely hate them for playing a Charmin soft schedule in an ACC that needs to be relegated to the Group of 5, the little old Clemson Tigers are going to make the College Football Playoff yet again. Unless they screw up and then they won’t, but they probably won’t because the ACC is hot garbage in 2019.

Clemson has two regular-season games left: home vs. the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in their final ACC game and then two weeks to get ready for the sinking South Carolina Gamecocks over in Columbia. The Tigers might have been challenged by Wake Forest, but Dave Clawson’s team just lost to the Virginia Tech Hokies badly. South Carolina has no shot against Clemson.

So Dabo Swinney‘s team will dance to Charlotte as the most unproven division champion in the Power 5. Waiting for them in the Carolina Panthers’ lair will be presumably Bronco Mendenhall’s Virginia Cavaliers. The Hoos will be just happy to be there, like the Pittsburgh Panthers a year ago.

Clemson is poised to go 13-0 (8-0) as an undefeated ACC Champion. If it loses to either Wake Forest or South Carolina, but still wins the ACC, the Tigers aren’t getting in due to a soft schedule and no meaningful wins. If they fall to Virginia, we can all laugh at them, as they’re not getting in.

LSU Tigers: 9-0 (5-0)

Coach O is a Cajun Giant Slayer. His team attacks top-10 teams like its big game hunting or something. LSU now has four wins over top-10 teams after beating the Alabama Crimson Tide in their own building. The Bayou Bengals have three more extremely winnable SEC games before playing presumably the East winner in the conference title bout in Atlanta.

LSU has to play at the Ole Miss Rebels, the Arkansas Razorbacks who just fired their head coach and end the year at home vs. the Texas A&M Aggies. That sounds like three W’s, but LSU can afford a loss to any of these inferior teams and can still make it to Atlanta for the right to reach the College Football Playoff.

If LSU makes it to Arthur Blank’s Spaceship at either 12-0 (8-0) or 11-1 (7-1) and defeats whoever comes out of the East, the Tigers will clinch their first College Football Playoff berth. If they are 12-0 (8-0) and lose to either Georgia or maybe even Florida in a rematch, the Bayou Bengals still have to like their chances of getting in as a one-loss, non-champion.

So the only way that LSU doesn’t get in is if the Tigers drop a conference game and then proceed to lose to either Georgia or Florida in the SEC Championship. A two-loss, non-champion isn’t getting in, but LSU has the résumé to get in as a perfect or one-loss conference champion, maybe even as a one-loss non-champion if things get weird enough down the line.

Ohio State Buckeyes: 9-0 (6-0)

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been the most dominant team this season in college football. While LSU has better wins, Ohio State has to be in the mix for the top seed in the tournament if they go unbeaten. It’s a tough stretch of games the rest of the way, but if any team can do it, it’s the Buckeyes.

Ohio State will beat the ever-living snot out of Rutgers on Saturday, but after that, that’s when the Buckeyes will really earn their way at the No. 1-seed. They will have to play Penn State at home before playing archrival Michigan on the road in Ann Arbor. Both of those teams will be ranked by the time Brutus Buckeye comes to town.

After that, Ohio State would face either what looks to be a great Cinderella story in Minnesota or the blue-blood of the Big Ten West in the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten Championship. Like LSU, a perfect or one-loss Ohio State team will get a top-two seed in the Playoff. The Buckeyes are getting in if they win the Big Ten, but need to beat Penn State first to ensure that.

Should the Buckeyes fall to the Nittany Lions and Penn State wins out, it’ll be James Franklin‘s team representing the Big Ten East in Indianapolis, not Ohio State. A one-loss non-champion Buckeyes would get the edge over a one-loss non-champion Alabama because of their resumes. Like Clemson and LSU, Ohio State is in outstanding shape to reach the College Football Playoff.