With Selection Sunday approaching for the College Football Playoff, it’s time to examine the prospects of the teams still in the hunt for the four-team field. This was undoubtedly the chalkiest season of the CFP era. For the first time ever, the top four teams were all undefeated heading into conference championship weekend. While this allows for the first-ever playoff field, it also creates the potential for chaos this weekend as it will be fiercely competitive at the top of the leaderboard.
After Friday night’s Pac-12 Championship Game, seven teams remain in play for the College Football Playoff. The only certainty was that the Pac-12 champions would make it to the CFP for the first time since Washington was No. 4 in 2016, and that the Huskies would return to the promised land after a 34-31 win over Oregon.
It is also extremely likely that we will have a playoff with only conference champions for the first time since 2019. Basically, the three remaining undefeated Power Five teams determine their own playoff fate.
Without further ado, here is a list of the remaining CFP contenders in order of their current ranking, as well as an explanation of what each team can accomplish this weekend. Let’s take a look at how these teams fare in championship week and the final CFP rankings.
Paths of the College Football Playoff
Beyond this list of candidates, CBS Sports released my updated bowl predictions for the 2023-24 season last Sunday. As a reminder, these predictions are not about the current state of play, but rather what I think they will look like after Saturday’s conference championship games.