By: Luke Brumm
I’ve had to change up the way I do these. I took out a couple of categories because I just don’t believe teams fit into them. I believe that championship and playoff contenders are the same thing this year. There are ten-plus teams that I could see winning it all. I also took away the pretenders. I don’t see any pretenders in this wide-open season of football. I now have my championship contenders, my teams right below the championship contenders, my sleepers, and then my best of the rest. Let’s take a look at where these teams stand going into week seven.
Championship Contenders
Georgia, Michigan, Florida State, Ohio State, Penn State, Oklahoma, Washington, Oregon, & Texas
I could see any of these teams winning it all and it wouldn’t surprise me. This is the cream of the crop this season as of right now. A lot of these teams will have to play each other, so this list will surely change. Depending on how those games go, I expect to see four of these teams in the CFP at the end of the year.
A Step Below the Championship Contenders
USC, Alabama, & North Carolina
These three teams are the ones I could see competing for a championship, but they have some noticeable flaws. USC needs a lot of help on the defensive side of the ball. This season will end up just like last year’s if they don’t fix the tackling. North Carolina is similar with their defense. I still don’t trust Alabama and that offense. Especially with one loss already, the Tide need to be near perfect.
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Sleepers
Oregon State, Louisville, Ole Miss, Tennessee, UCLA
These four teams could either A. win out and make a run for the playoff, or B. at least ruin the chances of some contenders. I like these teams and believe they can hang with the big dogs. Consistency and depth however are my key concerns and hold them back compared to the teams above them.
Best of the Rest
Utah, Duke, Washington State, LSU, Notre Dame, & Kansas
These are the rest of the best teams in the country. They are Top 25 teams, but I’m not sure if they can make playoff runs. I could see them upsetting some teams higher up on the tier list, however. These are all one-loss teams except for LSU and Notre Dame, who each have two losses. All of these teams really need to impress me this week to move up.
