The college football season is less than two weeks away, underscored by Monday’s release of the Associated Press preseason top 25 poll.
With the beginning of a new era of the College Football Playoff, now featuring an expanded 12-team field, here’s one thing that needs to happen if the following would-be contenders want to be included.
Clemson will make the CFP if it beats either of Georgia or Florida State.
Dabo Swinney’s team is ranked No. 14 in the latest poll and will encounter three top 25 teams in its first five games. It will face No. 1-ranked Georgia in Atlanta on Aug. 31, and then, four weeks later, it will have to travel to Tallahassee and play the No. 10 Seminoles.
Clemson is not favored to win the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) — that favors in-state rivals Florida State and Miami — but even with a weaker schedule, it is in a position to be a top 12-ranked squad winning the games it’s supposed to. That’s leaves it two opportunities to find a signature win, and affordable loss, by mid-October.
Arizona will make the CFP if it beats Utah and Kansas State.
The Big 12 Conference is a lot more wide open than some may think. Of course, the No. 12-ranked Utah Utes are the consensus favorite, but No. 21 Arizona has the talent to be taken seriously. Its schedule doesn’t help, though.
That’s why Arizona, which will travel to Utah and No. 18 Kansas State in back-to-back weeks, needs both signature wins to convince the committee to award it an at-large bid — presuming Utah or Kansas State win the conference.
Oklahoma will make the CFP if it gets three wins out of this killer stretch in its schedule.
The No. 16-ranked Sooners will need a phenomenal first season in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) to earn a spot in the playoff, but it’s entirely attainable. Oklahoma has six top-15 matchups on its in-conference schedule and will only need a split to make its case to the committee.
Three wins against any of the following should get the job done for head coach Brent Venables: No. 15 Tennessee, No. 13 LSU, No. 11 Missouri, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 5 Alabama and No. 4 Texas. However, that all relies on Oklahoma winning the games it’s favored in, including an early road trip to Auburn, which could be a huge tone-setter.
USC will make the CFP if it gets off to a hot start.
The No. 23-ranked Trojans have a relatively favorable schedule — they’ll avoid No. 3 Oregon and No. 2 Ohio State altogether in the Big Ten regular season — but there is little room for error if they want to be playing in January. Head coach Lincoln Riley will need his team in top form from the jump as it starts the season with No. 13 LSU in Las Vegas and then two weeks later travels to Ann Arbor to face defending national champion No. 9 Michigan.
Winning both of those games will put USC on a collision course with No. 7 Notre Dame at the end of the season — possibly a playoff game in its own right. A mid-season falter against No. 8 Penn State wouldn’t hinder USC’s path too much, presuming it’s undefeated entering that bout. Of course, anything can happen in college football, which kicks off Aug. 24 with Florida State and Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland.
