Predicting the College Football Playoff Midway Through the Season

By Trevor Lowry @TheTrevorLowry on October 17, 2014

If the season ended today, Mississippi State, Florida State, Ole Miss and Baylor would make the College Football Playoff. Unfortunately for those teams, the season does not end today. It doesn’t even end tomorrow, or the day after that. It ends in December.

Midway through the 2014 college football season, your guess is as good as mine as to which teams will end up in the CFP.

At the rate things are going, the state of Mississippi is going to explode (in a good way), none of the favorites entering the season are going to make it (to the playoff, that is), a two-loss team will make it and the College Football Playoff committee is going to have a gigantic mess on its hands at season’s end. Heck, the way things are going, even Marshall has a shot … maybe.

I hope the members of said committee knew what they were getting themselves into when they signed up for this job. Just for the record, Alabama, Oregon and Oklahoma — three heavy favorites to make the playoff entering the season— all have a loss. Mississippi State and Ole Miss — two not-so-heavy favorites (not even close) — are ranked in the top three. Yeah, it’s been that kind of season.

Getting to the point, here are the four teams that I predict to make the CFP midway through the season: Mississippi State, Florida State, Oregon and Michigan State.

Now, teams like Alabama, Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor, Notre Dame, Auburn, Georgia, Ohio State, Kansas State and I am just going to stop there, all still are in play.

We will break down those four predictions case by case.

Mississippi State

To make this short and sweet, the Bulldogs have beaten three top 10 teams in a row. Let me repeat that: The Bulldogs have beaten THREE top 10 teams in a row. Heck, crown them champs right now. They have Dak Prescott taking the snaps, who could end up winning the Heisman. With that said, they still have to take on Alabama and Ole Miss. As if that wasn’t hard enough, Mississippi State will have to play both teams on the road. Still, this has been the most impressive team midway through the game.

Florida State

Even with all the crab leg talk and all of the other off-the-field issues Jameis Winston has faced in 2014, Florida State is a perfect 6-0. The Seminoles will take on Notre Dame next. FSU lucked out by getting the Fighting Irish at home. Looking at the rest of this team’s schedule, if the Seminoles can get by Notre Dame, they should go undefeated. All off this likely goes down the drain if Winston is suspended, for whatever the reason may be.

Oregon

Whether if the top teams in the Pac-12 were overrated, or the conference really is that good from top to bottom, the top dogs in this conference have done some disappointing early on. With that said, the Ducks have a manageable schedule the rest of the way, and they, like the other two teams before them, have a Heisman contender on their side.

Michigan State

Who knows if any Big 10 team can gain enough style points to make the playoff, but Michigan State entered the year as the favorite to win the conference title, and it is still looking that way. If the Spartans win out, their only loss would have been to the Ducks. They will, like other one-loss teams, need some help to make it in.

With top teams going down left and right, we could be looking at four new favorites come Sunday. That is how crazy the season has been. Luckily for the fans watching, it will likely stay that way the rest of the year.

Stay tuned, as there will likely be another upset or two in 2014. You never know, by the time December rolls around, Marshall, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and TCU could be the last four teams standing.

I will leave you with this:

The Egg Bowl (yes, the Egg Bowl, not the Iron Bowl or any other rivalry game consisting of two powerhouses) will more than likely play a huge part in who is in and who is out this year.

Trevor Lowry is a Content Associate at www.RantSports.com. If you’re a tweeter feel free to follow him @TheTrevorLowry or add him to your network on Google.