SMQ: Which 1-loss teams are still College Football Playoff contenders?

Great, but what does this all mean?

There are a few takeaways that these past five games can offer as we try to figure out which remaining one-loss contenders could make the College Football Playoff. It seems as though there are a few key ingredients that translate across time.

A close loss is better than a blowout. A loss to a ranked team is better than losing to an unranked team. The one thing that doesn’t seem to be a major issue, though, is where a team actually ends up in the polls. That was especially true of the 2014 Buckeyes and 2007 Hokies, who both fell way down the AP Top 25 but still managed to reach the final four. In the case of Ohio State, they managed to win the entire College Football Playoff thanks to the increased access.

Teams, though, must hold up their ends of the bargain. A few of these teams went on to lose another game over the course of their seasons, but they also won their respective conference championships. Despite what last year’s Ohio State team made it seem, league titles still do matter for Power Five teams trying to get into the College Football Playoff bracket.

So which one-loss teams could be the next to make the top four?

There are really only six teams that have a somewhat realistic shot. In order, here they are with their losses:

1. Auburn (1-1) — lost 14-6 at No. 3 Clemson
2. Ohio State (1-1) — lost 31-16 vs. No. 5 Oklahoma
3. Florida State (0-1) — lost 24-7 vs. No. 1 Alabama (in Atlanta)
4. West Virginia (1-1) — lost 31-24 vs. No. 21 Virginia Tech (in Atlanta)
5. Florida (0-1) — lost 33-17 vs. No. 11 Michigan (in Arlington, TX)
6. Stanford (1-1) — lost 42-24 at No. 6 USC

Two of those teams, as you see, are 0-1 schools. Both, naturally, are Florida schools whose games were canceled this weekend. The College Football Playoff selection committee and voters in the respective polls will probably look at the Seminoles and Gators as 1-1 teams for the sake of argument.

Auburn, interestingly, might have the best loss of the bunch. They are the only team to fall on the road to a top-four school. Only one other team managed to hang within a single score of the opponent that took them down.

Stanford might be in the worst position of the teams. Though they lost on the road to a high-ranked team and held the game close for most of the contest, the simple fact that the loss came in conference play could ultimately doom them. The Cardinal cannot afford to lose another game in Pac-12 play, as they try to take back the division crown from Washington and return to Santa Clara.

Florida State is in the toughest spot, after losing starting quarterback Deondre Francois to an injury against Alabama. The Seminoles were forced to sit Week 2 action as games were canceled across the state. They will also have another bye next week after the rivalry game against Miami was pushed back into October. They are left in limbo, unable to redeem themselves after the loss to the Crimson Tide and unsure of what they will actually look like moving forward.

Next: College Football: Top 50 breakout candidates for 2017

Honestly, though, if any team is going to pull off the feat this year, it is likely going to be the team that has done it before from this bunch. Ohio State is best positioned to rebound, especially if they take down highly-ranked Penn State and Michigan along the way. If Oklahoma wins the Big 12 and a 12-1 Ohio State team takes the Big Ten crown, they would almost certainly both be in the College Football Playoff. Of course, that requires remembering how to actually play offense.