What teams can still make the College Football Playoff entering Week 12?

Entering Week 12, there are nine Power Five teams who can make the College Football Playoff.

With two more weeks left in the regular season, as well as Championship Weekend, let’s take a look at what teams are still in the mix to make the College Football Playoff, as well as the overall likelihood they could be making the four-team field.

Entering Week 12, there are nine teams with great to semi-legitimate cases about getting in this year. Those nine teams are Georgia, LSU and Tennessee out of the SEC, Michigan and Ohio State out of the Big Ten, Clemson and North Carolina out of the ACC, TCU out of the Big 12 and USC out of the Pac-12. While all nine teams can be deserving, only four of them are getting in this season.

Let’s take a look at their pathways and the overall viability of each candidate potentially getting in.

College Football Playoff: Who can make it in and what is their overall likelihood?

North Carolina is the biggest long shot that still controls its own destiny to get in

Yes, Mack Brown’s North Carolina Tar Heels are still in contention to make the College Football Playoff out of the ACC this year. They are 9-1 on the season and 6-0 in conference play, having clinched an ACC Coastal Division crown already. A bad 2021 season, a porous defense, a first-year starting quarterback and the worst division across the Power Five has UNC hiding in the tall grass.

Should the Tar Heels beat Georgia Tech and North Carolina State at home, they will make the College Football Playoff as a one-loss ACC Champion, so long as they were to then beat Clemson in Charlotte. These are all winnable games for UNC, but they love to give up points almost as much as they love scoring them. Regardless, UNC would make the field by not losing a conference game.

A 12-1 (8-0) ACC Champion UNC team gets in with its only loss on the year being to Notre Dame.