With the entire country having played nine games, and thus three quarters of the regular season, the College Football Playoff race is heating up. Plenty of programs have had their say on the makeup of the top four and the final standings, which will release in about a month. With three games left on everyone's schedule, there are two sets of College Football Playoff contenders remaining: the favorites and the dark horses.
With all the exposition out of the way, here are five remaining teams who have an outside shot of reaching the College Football Playoff.
5. USC
The USC Trojans, guided by first-year head coach Lincoln Riley, have completely turned their fortunes from the later parts of the Clay Helton tenure. They're 8-1 for the first time since 2008, and they have a good shot at reaching the Pac-12 title game, with the main threat between the Trojans and a trip to Vegas being a showdown with No. 9 UCLA.
If USC beats UCLA and then beats Oregon (the likely opponent) in the Pac-12 Championship, they'd be 12-1 and almost certainly have the qualifications necessary to reach the College Football Playoff.
4. UCLA
Fellow Los Angeles residents UCLA also sit at 8-1, and they too have a very good shot of reaching Las Vegas if they're the winner of their showdown with No. 8 USC. Where USC has Colorado and non-conference No. 20 Notre Dame either side of that game, UCLA faces Arizona and Cal, paltry competition in comparison to the Trojans.
The winner of the Pac-12 title game should find itself with a spot in the top four, so if UCLA can get to that point, they'll naturally take that mantle with just a lone loss to likely ranked Washington.
3. LSU
After an emotional and impressive 32-31 win over No. 6 Alabama, LSU vaults to the top of the SEC West with a tiebreaker over No. 11 Ole Miss. Should the Tigers win their final two conference games against Arkansas and Texas A&M, they'll head to Atlanta in Brian Kelly's first season, which would be quite the turnaround from the early-season struggles the Tigers faced.
Should they reach the conference championship and win, they'd very likely be the first two-loss team to ever reach the College Football Playoff. It would also be the second time the Tigers reached the pinnacle of the sport, after they won it all in 2019.
2. Ole Miss
Similar things are at play with Ole Miss, who with just one LSU conference loss and continued victories, would head to Atlanta in place of the Tigers. However, the Rebels have a tougher road, as they would still have to get their own win over Alabama to qualify. Regardless of record, the SEC champion is likely to reach the College Football Playoff.
The Rebels would need to beat all of Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi State since they don't hold the tiebreaker over LSU, and have the Tigers lose as mentioned, in addition to beating either Georgia or Tennessee in the conference championship to reach the CFP. The Rebels have never played for a conference championship, so just making it that far would be a victory for Lane Kiffin and company.
1. Tennessee
After losing to Georgia, it is an uphill battle to say the least for the Volunteers, as they'd likely need one of two things to happen. Either Georgia would need to lose two games, sending Tennessee to Atlanta, and they'd need to win that as well, or the other scenario where Georgia loses one game, LSU wins the SEC West, and LSU wins the conference. This would leave Tennessee at 11-1 and Georgia at 11-2, and the Volunteers with a slightly better chance of making it to the College Football Playoff.
It's all unlikely, but it could happen, as we've seen some crazy things happen this season. It's all still to play for of course, and each of these five teams can only control what's in front of them.
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