College Football Playoff: Which Top 25 teams are contenders, pretenders?

With one third of the 2017 college football season completed, which AP Top 25 teams are contenders and which are simply pretenders.

When college football transitioned to a four-team playoff system to decide the national champion, it changed the entire fabric of the sport.

While all teams previously had to worry about was maintaining a winning record throughout the season, with the two best teams ultimately facing off for BCS trophy in January, coaches and athletic directors alike have now had to consider the strengths of their team’s schedule and began scheduling more challenging, out-of-conference games in order to strengthen their portfolio, and build a resume of “statement wins”.

After four weeks of the 2017 college football season, there are an impressive 16 major college football teams who own undefeated records. When all of the games have been played there will be no more than four, that earns a seat at the table.

With only nine more weeks of regular season college football left to play in 2017, here is an overview which teams in the AP Top-25 Poll are truly contending for the College Football Playoffs, and which teams are simply playing for a warm weather bowl game.