It’s November, which means we are rapidly approaching the end of the regular season in college football.
Two weeks from Saturday, the 2026 season will come to a bittersweet end, followed by conference championship weekend and then, finally, Selection Sunday for the College Football Playoff the very next day.
With that in mind, and reading the tea leaves from the first few CFP ranking reveals, it seems as though this year may be the year we finally see a three-loss team making an appearance in the Big Dance.
That sight will be much more commonplace after next year when the field expands to 24 teams, but a three-loss playoff team in the 12-team era is certainly unprecedented.
But who has the best shot of going on a run out of all of the three-loss teams logjammed in the middle of the CFP rankings?
To my eye, there are five teams sitting between 16 and 21 that have three losses as well as a legitimate shot at making the cut: Oregon, South Carolina, Ohio State, Ole Miss and LSU.
I realize there is a good chance more teams join this list, but as of right now, these seem to be the most likely candidates from the pool of three-loss teams.
I considered adding Missouri to the mix, but the Tigers have Georgia and Kentucky lurking these next two weeks, and 1-1 in that two-game stretch feels optimistic at best.
Plus, their best win is over a reeling Florida team, so I’m not sure they would have much of an argument unless they took down the Bulldogs this Saturday.
Ole Miss and LSU are both interesting cases.
The Rebels have arguably one of the best quarterbacks in college football in Trinidad Chambliss and a damn good running back in Kewan Lacy to boot.
Ole Miss also has a couple of really nice wins over LSU and the aforementioned Missouri.
NEW COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF POLL PROVES THE SELECTION COMMITTEE IS JUST MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO
LSU is a bit more of a stretch.
As I mentioned, they lost head-to-head against the Rebels and really don’t have a great win on their resume outside of a drubbing to open the season against Clemson.
Their offense is always dangerous thanks to the play calling combo of Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr., and they have one of the most expensive rosters in college football.
One thing both of these teams have going against them, though, are very recent blowout losses to superior conference teams.
The Tigers just got done getting dominated in the fourth quarter by a surging Alabama team, and the Rebels were completely manhandled by Georgia just six days ago.
The Bulldogs look like the best team in the country, so that may be excusable, but Ole Miss also has a loss to Florida on their resume in which they were completely outclassed for the majority of the second half.
Moving o
