We are four weeks into the college football season, and we have seen it all with shocking upsets, dominant performances, and big time early season matchups with serious implications. Conference play is here, which is the most important time of the season for teams, but that does not mean what has already happened in the first few weeks doesn't matter.
However, with the 12-team playoff format, one loss does not decide a team's season or immediately eliminate them from playoff contention. With that in mind, let's look at the top 10 teams that already have a loss but can still make the College Football Playoff.
The Buckeyes' lone loss came to the current No. 1 team in the country in Texas and was in a game that Ohio State dominated for most of. They do not have any quality wins at the moment but they will have plenty of chances for those, including this week at Iowa, as well as several other big games down the road. With how tough their schedule is one loss certainly doesn't knock them out of the playoff, and even with two or three losses, this team would still have a solid resume.
Boise State may have the most impressive loss of the season, giving Oregon all they could handle in the opener. The Broncos are a heavy favorite to represent the Group of Six in the CFP and rightfully so, having already taken care of business against two strong G6 teams in Memphis and Western Michigan. They’ll now head into Pac-12 play, where they could very likely be double-digit favorites in every game.
The Rebels got dominated in Week 4 in the Swamp against Florida, but that does not take away from the two great wins they already have against Louisville and LSU. Pete Golding’s defense has not performed well, and it’s looking like this team will go as far as Trinidad Chambliss will take them, which could certainly be another appearance in the CFP.
Lane Kiffin seemingly took his loss to Ole Miss in his return to Oxford well, knowing that everything this team wants to achieve is still ahead of them despite the defeat. They bounced back with a convincing win against Texas A&M and will have one more tune-up against McNeese State before heading into a challenging SEC slate that will ultimately decide their season.
The Ducks were one of the biggest winners of Week 4 getting their season back on track with a win at USC after a rocky start that included the shocking loss to Oklahoma State. It’s uncertain how long they will be without their quarterback Dante Moore, but Dylan Raiola looked poised and showed exactly why Oregon brought him in this offseason. Most notably, the Ducks still have a huge matchup against a surging UCLA team coming up after a bye this week, as well as a trip to Columbus to face Ohio State in early November.
It felt like Tennessee had no business winning that game against Texas, but some late-game theatrics had them right in it until the end, and finishing with just a three-point loss to the No. 1 team in the country. Jim Knowles’ defense has looked promising, and freshman QB Faizon Brandon should only get better as the season goes on. This felt like it would be more of a figure-it-out year for the Vols, but I wouldn’t count them out yet with a more manageable SEC schedule ahead.
Lincoln Riley suffered another disappointing loss in a big game against Oregon that looked very similar to what we have seen in the past from his USC teams. The good news is they’ll have plenty more chances to pick up wins against quality opponents, with games against Ohio State, Indiana, and UCLA still on the schedule.
Willie Fritz’s team has gotten off to a solid start coming off a 10-3 season in 2025. The Big 12 is wide open, and the Cougars' lone loss came on the road to Texas Tech, the heavy favorite in the conference coming into the season, in a game they were just inches away from taking to overtime.
The loss to Tulsa in the opener was bad, but this team has looked better each week and has the crown-jewel win over Oregon. As mentioned, the Big 12 is wide open for the taking, and the Cowboys are worth keeping an eye on. We have seen teams before suffer an embarrassing loss to a much lesser opponent early in the year and still go on to have a very successful season.
The main reason this team was seen as a playoff contender coming into the season was its favorable schedule, and that is still the case despite dropping one of those “easy games” against Wisconsin. They’ll get USC at home in two weeks, and outside of that, their most challenging games coming into the season were at Michigan and Washington, which look much different now. Even if they drop another game, it will be tough to ignore a 10-2 team from the Big Ten.
This one is a real longshot, but Northwestern gave Indiana everything they could handle in Bloomington in Week 4 and had a legitimate shot to win that game. David Braun has an extremely tough defense, and Chip Kelly has Northwestern’s offense looking as good as we have seen in quite some time with Aidan Chiles playing the best football of his career. The schedule is daunting, but if they can take care of business in the games they should win and pull off an upset or two, especially this Friday against Penn State, this team could have a resume that is worth consideration at the end of the season.
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