CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: ohio1317 on August 19, 2025, 11:09:04 AM
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This is the weekly post for people who love lists. In these posts, each week, I'll list the remaining undefeated teams and later the 1-loss and winless teams. I will also generally highlight the significance I see in upcoming games (time dependent).
The winless list has always just been a fun one to watch to look for games where everyone can hopefully at least get their first win. The undefeated and 1-loss lists had more implications traditionally. In the BCS and 4 team CFP era, every team to make the championship/playoff was an undefeated or 1-loss team team from an AQ/Power 5 conference with the exception of a 2007 2-loss LSU (in what is still the craziest year of college football I have ever seen) and 2021 Cincinnati (outside a power conference at the time). Every single undefeated team from an AQ/Power 5 conference made the championship/CFP except for 2004 Auburn, 2009 Cincinnati, 2023 Florida State. Meanwhile, all of our non-AQ/Group of 5 representatives in the major bowls were also on one of those lists except 2014 Boise State and 2022 Tulane (both 2 losses).
Last year was our 1st chance to see how things would shake out in the 12 team format. Once again, we saw a 1-loss Group of 5 conference champ chosen (Boise State, who also had a bye as a top 4 conference champ). All zero and 1-loss power 5 conference teams made the playoff. Two loss SMU was chosen over 3-loss Alabama in the end, so we did not get a 3 loss team make it as an at large (we were close though; either a closer Alabama loss to Oklahoma or a bigger loss by SMU to Clemson could well have flipped the script). We did see a 3 loss conference champ in though as Clemson won the ACC.
This year, we no longer have auto-byes for the 4 highest conference champions. My guess is that all teams with byes and most with 1st round home games will be on the undefeated or 1-loss list. While we will probably again have a 2-loss team or two hosting, if a schools wants to at least do that, they are in a much better position with no more than 1 loss. I also wouldn't guarantee the ACC or Big 12 Champs get a bye without being undefeated, but they will be in the running with a single loss.
Conference changes this year:
-Last year we saw Kennesaw State complete their transition to FBS and they are now a full member. Delaware and Missouri State join them as Conference USA members this year and are currently in the transition to FBS. This gives the conference 12 members again, but they will lose Louisiana Tech to the Sun Belt sometime soon.
The only other official change for this year is UMass joining the MAC. They were there for football in the past, but now join as full members. This will put the conference briefly at 13 teams, but next year Northern Illinois will leave to join the Mountain West for football.
This will be the 2nd and last year we see Oregon State and Washington State technically in the PAC-12, but effectively operating as independents. Without a Mountain West scheduling alliance this year, they have a pretty much full independent schedule and will play each other home and away. Next year, they will be able to reform the PAC-12 with ripple effects. Texas State will leave the Sun Belt to be replaced by Louisiana Tech (although maybe not immediately). The rest of the new members will come from the Mountain West with Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and Utah State all leaving to join. This will leave the Mountain West inviting Hawaii as a full member (was football only), inviting UTEP from Conference USA, inviting Northern Illinois from the MAC as a football only member, and adding two full members for non-football sports.
Note: We are down to just two official independents in Notre Dame and UConn (with Oregon State and Washington State also effectively acting like them for one more year).
Maximum number of Undefeated Teams at the End of the Regular Season:
12*: If we assume that there are no more than 1 undefeated team per conference this is correct. There are many (fairly unlikely) scenarios where we could have three undefeated teams in a conference before conference championship games. For simplicity, I am going to ignore that possibility for at least the first few weeks and maybe well longer.
Going with that assumption, we have the possibility of one undefeated in each of the 9 FBS conferences, one of Washington State/Oregon State and both Notre Dame and UConn.
Week 0 and 1 Thoughts:
Iowa State vs. Kansas State (week 0) While I personally wouldn't want to start the year with a conference game, as a spectator, I love this game week zero.
Boise State at South Florida (Thursday): The Mountain West and American are best positioned for the Group of 5 playoff spot. This game could be very significant in that regard, especially if South Florida wins.
Nebraska vs. Cincinnati: Would be a good win for the Big 12 and a nice recovery from a rough Big 12 start if the Bearcats could pull this off. Nebraska is also very much trying to bring back some magic back and losing this would hurt.
Texas at Ohio State: #1 vs. #2/3 to start off. It's not quite as important as it would have been in the past as the both teams could probably afford this and another loss at least. That said, it will effect Big Ten vs. SEC perceptions, is a replay of a great semi-final Cotton Bowl, and has a very close spread between two national title contenders and the favorites to win both their conferences.
Alabama at Florida State: The Crimson Tide have slid a bit. Florida State collapsed last year. Both want to make a statement.
LSU at Clemson: The line is pretty close. The ACC winning games like this helps its chances of both a bye and multiple teams in. Clemson is a small favorite.
Utah at UCLA: Big 12 vs. Big Ten game. That still feels weird.
Notre Dame at Miami (FL) (Sunday): Miami slipped out of the playoff race late last year. Notre Dame made it to the championship game. This is big for both playoff hopes this year and the line is less than 3 points in Notre Dame's favor.
TCU vs. North Carolina (Monday): Our one Monday night football game. A decent Big 12 vs. ACC match-up. Both conferences will be hoping multiple bids this year.
I could probably go a lot more, but will leave it at this for the start.
Notes on list below:
1. I am still listing Oregon State and Washington State as PAC-12 schools as that is how they identify themselves.
2. This list is in order from around the time I started making these posts for myself (just lists and nothing more back then). I keep it in that order as kind o f a nod to the past. I know I could update teams to current conferences, but I kind of like having to think as I move teams so leave it this way. The teams that have been added to FBS since that time (a lot) are on the bottom in order.
Remaining Undefeated Teams: ACC: 17, American: 14, Big 12: 16, Big Ten: 18, Conference USA: 12, MAC: 13, Mountain West: 12, PAC-12: 2, SEC: 16, Sun Belt: 14, independents: 2, total: 136
Boston College
Clemson
Florida State
Maryland
North Carolina State
Wake Forest
Duke
Georgia Tech
Miami (FL)
North Carolina
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Colorado
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Nebraska
Baylor
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Louisville
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
South Florida
Syracuse
West Virginia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin
UAB
East Carolina
Marshall
Memphis
Southern Mississippi
Central Florida
Houston
Rice
Southern Methodist
Tulane
Tulsa
UTEP
Akron
Bowling Green
Buffalo
Kent State
Miami (OH)
Ohio U.
Ball State
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Northern Illinois
Toledo
Western Michigan
Air Force
Brigham Young
Colorado State
New Mexico
San Diego State
Texas Christian
UNLV
Utah
Wyoming
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Southern California
Stanford
UCLA
Washington
Washington State
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Louisiana State
Mississippi State
Mississippi
Arkansas State
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
Middle Tennessee
North Texas
Troy
Boise State
Fresno State
Hawaii
Louisiana Tech
Nevada
New Mexico State
San Jose State
Utah State
Army
Navy
Notre Dame
Temple
Western Kentucky
Massachusetts
South Alabama
Texas State
UTSA
Georgia State
Appalachian State
Georgia Southern
Old Dominion
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
Liberty
James Madison
Jacksonville State
Sam Houston
Kennesaw State
(Delaware)
(Missouri State)
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