SMQ: Which undefeated college football teams could end long championship drought?

Which team has the best shot of breaking national title drought in 2017?

All five of these teams are perfectly capable of running the table and breaking a long title drought. Washington has had the most recent success, reaching the College Football Playoff last season, and as the Pac-12 North favorite the Huskies will have a shot at returning to the top four yet again in 2017.

Chris Petersen’s team probably has the best current chance of playing for the national crown this season. But actually breaking that drought is another question. Is Washington as currently constructed as dangerous as teams like Alabama, Oklahoma, or Clemson?

Colorado won the Pac-12 South last year and played Washington in the conference championship. Getting back to Santa Clara, though, is going to be far more difficult with teams like Utah, USC, and UCLA all in the mix for the division title as well. Last year was a perfect storm for Mike McIntyre’s team, and while they are 3-0 now it will be much tougher to remain unbeaten for an entire year.

Georgia looks increasingly like the best team in the SEC East. But to get to the College Football Playoff, the Bulldogs would likely have to take down No. 1 Alabama in the SEC championship game. That hurdle isn’t insurmountable, but any win over Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide is always a tough task. That said, with Jake Fromm still easing into life at quarterback for the injured Jacob Eason, it will be hard to stay unbeaten through an entire league campaign.

That leaves the two Big Ten schools as probably the best bets to break their national title droughts next. Jim Harbaugh is beginning to build a contender in Ann Arbor that should be good for years to come, but Michigan is fielding a young offense that is still too green to be consistently effective this year.

Who does that leave?

In the end, it is probably Penn State that has the best shot at winning a national title in 2017. The Nittany Lions have an experienced roster on both sides of the ball. Trace McSorley has been on and off for the Penn State offense, and Saquon Barkley could be utilized more effectively by James Franklin and his staff.

In general, though, no team has as clear a path to the national semifinals among this list. James Franklin’s crew has become a tight-knit unit after being snubbed by the College Football Playoff committee last year.

For powerhouse teams riding a long drought, skepticism begins to creep in. Last year, the committee overlooked the Nittany Lions over an Ohio State team that lost head-to-head to Penn State and failed to win the conference. It was reminiscent of the BCS taking Nebraska over Colorado in 2001, wholly inexplicable by any measure of logic save opaque computer algorithms and nebulous concepts like “quality wins” in the decision-making process.

Even after losing last year’s Rose Bowl in an instant classic against USC, though, Penn State remains a tough out for just about any team. As long as they keep winning, the Nittany Lions will have a definite shot at reaching the national semifinals for the first time.

That is why Penn State is likely the team that will break their drought first. The ingredients are all in place for James Franklin’s crew to step up from SEC spoiler to SEC contender. Now all the Nittany Lions need to do is effectuate their strength relative to other top-five teams. That hurdle has already been cleared once in the recent past, and could be again if the Nittany Lions play their cards right.

What are the chances of success?

If this exercise taught anything, though, it is that winning a national title is an absurd demand for just about any team given the exclusive nature of the club. Even powerhouses like Georgia, Penn State, and Michigan find it tough to break such a drought. But teams seem to have an easier time of earning a national title bid after multiple years of demonstrated success.

Winning a conference title is a key component as well. Washington and Penn State have the clearest paths to that goal. Georgia probably has the toughest. Michigan and Colorado are currently stuck behind their conference counterparts.

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But as the introduction noted, the exclusive club became just a bit more exclusive during the BCS era and into the College Football Playoff that enters its fourth year. Reaching the summit of the college football mountaintop will not be easy for any of these teams, and the drought is likely going to extend another year for all of the above.