5 modern era teams that would've been dangerous 12-seeds in expanded College Football Playoff

1. 2007 Florida Gators (9-3/3rd in SEC East)

Perhaps the most dangerous 12-seed of the modern era would have been the Florida Gators squad that lost three games in the chaotic 2007 season. That year Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore while the Gators lost three games by a combined 19 points to fall to third in the SEC East standings. But while Florida fell in the SEC hierarchy, they were still among the dozen best teams in the country that season.

In both of their championship runs that bookended the 2007 season, Florida's modus operandi for victory was overwhelming their opponents with superior offensive firepower. Eight times that year, Florida scored 40 or more points on their opponents. That included four times in that hectic campaign when the Gators posted 50 or more points.

In the opening round, the Gators would travel to Athens for a reprisal of the World's Largest Cocktail Party on enemy turf. While Georgia dealt Florida its biggest defeat in the regular season, this contest would offer a chance for the Gators to exact revenge for that earlier loss. If they got past their division rival, flawed Oklahoma and Virginia Tech squads would await in the next two rounds. The biggest risk of advancement would likely come in the first game, and otherwise a clear path toward a potential threepeat awaited the Gators... if a 12-team playoff existed at the time.