As everyone knows, this is the first season of the College Football Playoff. Four teams will make it and everyone else will have some nice parting gifts. Take note that these rankings aren’t the Top 4 teams in the country, they’re the four teams with the best chance to make the playoff.

#1 Florida State Seminoles

With Florida State’s remaining schedule, it almost seems as if they are a lock to make it into the playoff. Their toughest remaining game comes this Thursday night at 6-2 Louisville but the ‘Noles will have had 12 days of preparation for the game. FSU has the advantage of being able to not play anywhere near their best football and still win each week.

#2 Mississippi State Bulldogs

Mississippi State has looked vulnerable at times this season and it would be more surprising to see them run the table than not. Still, they’ve looked like the best team in the best conference and they can afford to absorb a loss somewhere along the way, as long as they can make it into the SEC title game and win it.

#3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame actually gained respect with their last-second loss at FSU last week and they are going to be favored in all of their remaining games. If they can finish and have wins at Arizona State and at USC on their resume with that close loss to FSU, Notre Dame is going to have a great case to be part of the playoff ahead of two-loss SEC teams.

#4 Oregon Ducks

Oregon has the nation’s best player in Marcus Mariota and they keep putting up big numbers and racking up Pac 12 victories. The Ducks should roll through the remaining part of their schedule and their resume would likely include four victories over ranked teams, assuming they play a ranked team in the Pac 12 championship game. A one-loss Oregon team would be very difficult to leave out of the playoff.

Again, these aren’t the best four teams in the nation, they’re the teams that are most likely to make it into the national playoff. We believe that there will be a great amount of diversity in the committee’s selections and that’s why there’s only one team from the SEC.