College Football: Five best dark horse picks to win National Championship in 2017

It’s a fan favorite discussion to pick the four teams that will make the College Football Playoff each season. But who are the dark horse picks in 2017?

The topic of dark horses really varies from the point of view of each college football fan. However, it’s always fun to see who the general picks are for the dark horses in every conference and which ones actually pan out. Preseason speculation is really just that, speculation.

None of the teams on this list will be considered top 10 teams when the season kicks off. But they could grow their resume very quickly through the early weeks of the season. Another thing to consider is the fact that it’s a lot easier for a Power Five conference team to build up a resume and make it to the College Football Playoff than that of a Group of Five team.

Current favorites to win the National Championship include the Alabama Crimson Tide, USC Trojans, Florida State Seminoles, Ohio State Buckeyes, Oklahoma Sooners, and the LSU Tigers. The Wisconsin Badgers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Auburn Tigers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Washington Huskies, Louisville Cardinals, and former National Title winner Clemson Tigers are also expected to be in contention at the top.

A few teams that just missed the cut in our dark horse discussion are the Mississippi State Bulldogs, South Carolina Gamecocks, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, West Virginia Mountaineers and Miami Hurricanes. There’s no telling if some of the teams that just missed the cut will end up actually disappointing their fans in 2017.

Now, let’s take a look at the five best dark horse picks to win the College Football Playoff National Championship.