The prospect of an expanded College Football Playoff for next season has caused a lot of people to lament the possibility of not-so-great teams making the college football's postseason.
That reality is the inclusion of not-so-great teams is coming a year. The increased parity among teams, the expansion of conference play and imperfect scheduling means we are staring at the likelihood of multiple teams with three losses being selected.
That's the reality as each week we continue to see teams in the top 10 fall. In Week 7, there were historic losses among the top 10. Las Saturday, we saw two more unbeatens at the top of the rankings fall, leaving us with just three teams without a loss before the start of November.
With many of the teams inside the US LBM Coaches Poll scheduled to face each other in the next five weeks, it's mathematically hard to arrive at a scenario where there wont be a three-loss teams in the field. Here's some of that math. The Big Ten looks to get three teams at best. The Big 12 will be fortunate to get two. The ACC likely only get multiple teams without a Miami loss in the conference title game. There will be one Group of Six team. And probably Notre Dame. That's a total of eight.
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That leaves four teams for the SEC. But which ones? Only Georgia and Kentucky have one overall loss. The Bulldogs still have to face two-loss teams Florida, Missouri and Mississippi. The Wildcats will play two-loss Tennessee and also Florida and Missouri. LSU and Alabama meet this week. The Tigers also face Texas and Tennessee. Texas also plays Missouri. The Crimson Tide and Mississippi are the only two-loss team that faces just one playoff contender down the stretch.
It's going to be a total mess in the final month that is sure to cause people to complain. For now, this is how we think it will shake out.
College football bowl projections after Week 8
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Which four? College football bowl projections break down state of SEC teams