College Football Playoff 2018: Who is still alive after Week 1?
By Zach Bigalke
The impact of the polls on who makes the College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff selection committee argues that they are an autonomous entity operating wholly independent and uninfluenced by the polls. They argue that their list of Top 25 teams, released for the first time in mid-October, offers a fresh look at the teams in the hunt for a national title.
To be completely unswayed by college football polls, though, one would have to avoid watching or following college football altogether. And while the selection committee is prone to earn grumbling from folks whose teams were left on the outside looking in, there is no indication that the selectors are not watching the games each week.
No team that has reached the College Football Playoff over the past four years was ranked outside the top 20 of the AP Top 25 or the Coaches Poll.
| YEAR | CFP | TEAM | AP | COACH |
| 2016 | 1 | Alabama | 1 | 1 |
| 2014 | 3 | Florida State | 1 | 1 |
| 2017 | 4 | Alabama | 1 | 1 |
| 2014 | 1 | Alabama | 2 | 2 |
| 2016 | 2 | Clemson | 2 | 2 |
| 2015 | 2 | Alabama | 3 | 3 |
| 2014 | 2 | Oregon | 3 | 4 |
| 2017 | 1 | Clemson | 5 | 5 |
| 2015 | 3 | Michigan State | 5 | 6 |
| 2014 | 4 | Ohio State | 5 | 6 |
| 2016 | 3 | Ohio State | 6 | 5 |
| 2017 | 2 | Oklahoma | 7 | 8 |
| 2015 | 1 | Clemson | 12 | 12 |
| 2016 | 4 | Washington | 14 | 18 |
| 2017 | 3 | Georgia | 15 | 15 |
| 2015 | 4 | Oklahoma | 19 | 19 |
Every year since 2015, there has been one team that started out the season between 12th and 19th in the preseason polls. But the vast majority of teams that reach the College Football Playoff were ranked somewhere in the top five of at least one of the two major preseason polls.
That effectively eliminates more than 100 teams each season before the first week even begins. But it also means that even a high ranking cannot survive a loss in the opening weekend.