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It gets vague, would PSU have been "G5" back when?  I'd say no, same with Pitt.  So, was SMU G5 sort of then?  Houston was, they did lose their first two games of the year in 1969.

Ranking The Best Undefeated G5 Football Teams of All Time | Downtown Huntington

1. Utah Utes (2008)

Like TCU the Utes are now part of a power conference and an undefeated season now would assure them a place at the table. But, the 2008 Utes weren’t given that same luxury. The Mountain West champs started the season off with a two-point win over nationally ranked Michigan in Ann Arbor. Beat a nationally ranked Oregon State team that was coming off an upset victory of then top ranked USC and downed both #11 TCU and #14 BYU at home before earning the right to take on Nick Saban and Alabama. Utah dominated the Crimson Tide 31-17 beating Bama worse than Florida, the eventual national champions in 2008 did in the SEC title game. Of course the P5 talking heads and fans say that Alabama didn’t take the game seriously and didn’t want to be there due to disappointment of missing out on a chance at the national title. But, Saban’s teams don’t like to lose and they rarely get decimated in such convincing fashion. This 2008 Utah team was for real and played one of the toughest schedules a “G5” team could play with four ranked opponents in the regular season. In the final rankings the polls were split. The Coaches had the Utes ranked 4^th while the writers at the AP ranked them number 2. But, I’m just going to rank them as the best non-power conference team to ever go undefeated in the era where a national title game was played.

of course SMU wasn't G5 back then

That’s fair. I mean, there was no G5 I suppose. 

Next best I found was 1980 BYU. 

I think Utah COULD plausibly have won the first two games, they'd be seeded say 6 playing 11, not much of a heavy lift.  They would face 1-4 and an upset there would not be an incredible feat.  But winning the third round looks unlikely, and then some.

In a hundred years?  Maybe, some G5 team gets a Michael Vick QB with an all around solid team maybe maybe.

Funny enough, the CFP expanding its field is done now in an attempt to reinvigorate the regular season.

Division games suddenly mean so much more. Win your division, get to the conference championship game, and you’re one win away. If you enter that game at a respectable 9-3, you might even be just one good showing away. Nebraska’s late-season stretch run through Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Northwestern gets even more important.

An early-season loss might not carry as much weight as it once did, but what if the impact of that is more marquee out-of-conference games? What if Alabama—whose coach has said Power Five should only play Power Five—scheduled more frequent games against other top teams early in the year, unafraid of what a trip-up toward the starting line would do to its finish line? Better for the product, right?

Late-season opt-outs have been a become a hot button issue of late, but this might address that too.

When Florida played Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl last season, it did so without some of its top weapons. Players like Kyle Pitts were getting ready for the NFL because a Cotton Bowl trophy under the current set-up is not reason enough for a player who is about to go make a lot of money in the league to risk a freak injury.

Under this 12-team model, that Florida team is hosting a Playoff game in December. Those players that sat out the Cotton Bowl are playing in a Playoff game. Another plus.


https://hailvarsity.com/football/an-expanded-college-football-playoff-is-a-huge-win-for-the-sport/


According to Bill Connelly’s SP+ projections, the No. 1 seed in this 12-team format only has a 71% chance of reaching the semifinals. That’s a 29% chance it doesn’t. A lot bigger than you expected, right?

Yeah Utah, Louisville and TCU were all good enough to earn a promotion.

Well, they all happened to be good at the right time, when all of the conferences were shuffling.  If this had been the late 90s, would Southern Miss and Marshall have been more attractive targets than Louisville and TCU?

And it also happened in an era where conferences weren't looking for the best schools within their geographic fit anymore, they were looking for the best way to expand their tv markets.  If this happens in a pre-BTN world, I'm not sure Maryland or Rutgers are even on the Big Ten's radar.  Obviously Rutgers for many reasons, but Maryland simply from a geographic fit, went from an outlier to being exactly what they were looking for.  And it made Pitt completely irrelveant as an expansion target

I wonder if expecting this is why UGA upped its OOC slates later this decade the way they did.

I wonder if expecting this is why UGA upped its OOC slates later this decade the way they did.

Everyone is doing it.  Florida has scheduled 3 road games west of Baton Rouge, for chrissakes!!