5 Non-Power 5 teams that could make the College Football Playoff

The Power Five doesn’t have a monopoly on the College Football Playoff. These five Group of Five and independent schools could make the Playoff in 2017.

33 years ago, BYU won the last national title won by a school outside the current Power Five conferences. (For this exercise, Notre Dame is included as a Power Five school given its national stature and nominal status within the ACC.) It was a landmark victory that the powerhouse conferences have fought to prevent ever since.

The Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance were initial attempts to consolidate power, nominally created in service of determining a decisive national champion. As the Coalition gave way to the Alliance, so too did the Alliance collapse in 1998 in favor of the Bowl Championship Series. For 18 seasons, the BCS offered up a No. 1 versus No. 2 showdown in the final game of the season.

But that system still drummed up plenty of controversy, as major conference champions were frozen out of a chance at a title. There was also the case of mid-major programs, who fought to become the next BCS Buster breaking into a major bowl game. Ultimately, the threat of legislative action forced the next iteration to incorporate an access path for smaller schools to play in a big-time postseason contest.

Now schools from the Group of Five conferences have a shot at playing in a major bowl game on an annual basis. Gone are the days of sweating out whether the BCS computers and pollsters would put a non-AQ team in the top 12. Now they merely need to win their league and rate higher than other Group of Five champs.

But that doesn’t mean the College Football Playoff doors are completely closed. A Group of Five team or an independent could still ostensibly finish in the top four and head to a semifinal site. Click ahead to read more about five non-Power Five teams that could make that leap in 2017.