All for Tennessee Official College Football Playoff Watch Following Week 5: Vols Should be No. 1

Teams Who Still Control Their Own Destiny for the College Football Playoff

1. Alabama Crimson Tide

Call us crazy for leaving the Alabama Crimson Tide out of our early College Football Playoff rankings. But they have the No. 66 ranked strength of schedule right now. The Tide’s schedule will improve as time goes on with their brutal November stretch. But right now, the USC Trojans are not looking like a quality win. So the Ole Miss Rebels are the only good team they’ve beaten to this point based on the standings.

2. Ohio State Buckeyes

Urban Meyer’s team looked great with a dominating victory over the Oklahoma Sooners. That’s enough of a quality win to keep the Ohio State Buckeyes among the first two out. But they still have the No. 77 ranked strength of schedule to this point. Bowling Green and Rutgers really drug them down. The good news is that coming up they get the Indiana Hoosiers, Wisconsin Badgers, and Penn State Nittany Lions. So if they keep winning, they’ll get back in the rankings pretty quickly.

3. West Virginia Mountaineers

Believe it or not, the West Virginia Mountaineers have played the toughest schedule of anybody in this first four out list. Their schedule rank is No. 58. And if, in a crazy world, they run the table in the Big 12, their non-conference victories over the Missouri Tigers and the BYU Cougars would be more than enough to sell them having the right to go to the College Football Playoff. So we have them in here. The only reason they aren’t above Alabama and Ohio State is that those teams will eventually move ahead of them in schedule strength.

4. Miami Hurricanes

Fans of The U are psyched about their undefeated start under new head coach Mark Richt. It’s enough to put them in the Top 10. However, their best win so far may have come against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. With the No. 120 ranked strength of schedule, they are No. 4 here. But they could move up over the next two weeks with Florida State and North Carolina up next.

5. Houston Cougars

They have the No. 108 ranked strength of schedule, but the Houston Cougars are the last team on this list that likely controls their own destiny to get to the College Football Playoff. They have a quality win over the Oklahoma Sooners and have another chance for a quality win over the Louisville Cardinals. The committee won’t want to feed into the anti-Group of Five bias if the Cougars do go undefeated.

6. Nebraska Cornhuskers

Right now, the Cornhuskers have the No. 150 ranked strength of schedule. But that’s because they got all the easy teams out of the way early. At 5-0, if Mike Riley’s team stays undefeated, the Huskers will have scored wins over the Indiana Hoosiers, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Maryland Terrapins. So being in the Big Ten, they definitely control their own destiny. And speaking of the Terps…

7. Maryland Terrapins

The Terps have played by far the easiest schedule of any team in the Power Five that’s undefeated to this point. At 4-0, they are looking good in D.J. Durkin’s first year as head coach, but they need to beat a decent teams. However, the Penn State Nittany Lions, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Ohio State Buckeyes, Minnesota Golden Gopher, and Nebraska Cornhuskers are all up. So if they happened to run the table against major odds, they’d definitely go to the College Football Playoff.