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Here's what it would take:

• Alabama defeats Chattanooga and Auburn

• Tennessee defeats LSU and Vanderbilt

• Texas loses to either Arkansas or Texas A&M

This puts Tennessee in the SEC title game against Georgia.

• Tennessee defeats Georgia

• Utah loses to either TCU, WVU, or in the BigXII title game

• UCLA loses to either Michigan, USC, or in the Big Ten title game.

In this case, the #1 spot comes down to Alabama or Tennessee. Notre Dame and Miami aren't jumping Alabama or an SEC champion Tennessee.

Now comes the interesting part. By this point, South Carolina would have already lost to Georgia, LSU would have lost to Tennessee, and Auburn would have lost to Alabama.

Meaning all it would take is Kentucky losing to Missouri to put them on the fringe of the Top 25. Losing to Louisville as well would guarantee that Kentucky finishes unranked.

In which case, it is plausible that Alabama finishes #1 in the college football rankings without a single win over a ranked team.

I'm not sure how many people on this sub track lower division football but there is currently an all time screw job taking place at the D3 level. This year, for the first time ever, the New England Small College Athletic Conference has decided to allow its members to participate in post-season play. This is significant not only because it brings the total number of automatically qualifying conference champions to 29, shrinking the at large pool to 11, it will also be the first time any NESCAC team plays a team outside of the conference. The NESCAC has a closed schedule, members only play nine conference games and no out of conference opponents.

At large bids are determined by a numerical formula called NPI, which was introduced a few years ago to remove the bias in human selection committees. NPI is essentially a calculation weighing your wins and losses against others using strength of schedule and conference winning percentage, I think you may see where I am going with this. NPI has no frame of reference with the NESCAC, because their teams play only each other the overall conference winning percentage remains .500. The conference quite literally breaks the formula.

This year the NESCAC had a three way tie between Trinity, Amherst, and Wesleyan, with all teams finishing 8-1 with a win and a loss over another. After exhausting their tie breakers the conference had to resort to a random drawing to choose Trinity as its champion. However, under current NPI projections both Amherst and Wesleyan are set to get at large bids for the D3 playoffs.

Their inclusion has bumped out two bubble teams, the defending national champion UW-River Falls at 7-3, and 8-2 MIAC runner up Bethel. Bethel in particular feels burned because they are the first team out and their only losses have come in road games against #4, then #1 North Central, and #3 St. John's.

Edit: Corrected the type of bid Amherst and Wesleyan are set to get.

Don’t know why I have such a disdain hate for Lane. I think he for some internal reason brings out the worst in me. I sincerely think he is the most arrogant and doucheiest person. Everytime he loses it brings me so much joy. I embrace for him to fail.

Please keep trash talk civil, and report any comments that violate our rules.

LET'S TALK FOOTBALL!

“Alabama established itself in the room with four "really good wins in the view of the committee," Yurachek said. Wins at LSU, at Kentucky, against South Carolina and at Mississippi State have earned the Tide the top two-loss spot. All four of those teams, though, lost Saturday.”

After a sloppy win against a terrible Vandy team, how would the committee justify keeping them at #3 when all of their “best wins” lost yesterday? IU got dropped 5 spots for the same resume killing weekend

Box Score provided by ESPN

Box Score provided by ESPN

I’ve never been more interested to see what the bottom of the CFP top 25 will look like. The last time a 6-4 team has appeared in the CFP Poll was when 6-4 Mississippi State was 25^th on November 16, 2021.

A 24-team playoff would have definitely featured several four-loss teams this year. And for reference: there was one four-loss team in final 2025 CFP Poll, zero in 2024, 5 in 2023, 6 in 2022 and two in 2021.

Ranked teams that fell to 6-4 this week

No. 17 South Carolina: Lost to Arkansas 34-6

No. 19 Ole Miss: Lost to Oklahoma 24-17

No. 21 LSU: Fell to No. 6 Texas 22-21

No. 22 Missouri: Defeated by No. 1 Georgia 48-21

No. 25 Oklahoma State: Beat by No. 12 Texas Tech 52-27