FO on ESPN: College Football

Last year, Penn State and USC each lost two games in September and still played well enough over the rest of the season to meet in the Rose Bowl. Which teams this year have lost early but could rebound to appear in a major bowl or even the College Football Playoff?

About two months of games remain before we start talking about conference championships and bowl bids, and only two teams project with a better than 50 percent chance of staying undefeated: Alabama and San Diego State. Love that easy Mountain West schedule!

In the NFL, we do an annual list of all 32 teams ranked by young talent, under the age of 25. Now we have a college version: the top 10 teams based on players currently in their first or second seasons. It looks like the next couple years in the Big 10 could be very exciting.

You know Alabama and Ohio State are good, but which surprise Big Ten team has the No. 3 highest chance to finish the 2017 college football season undefeated?

Here's our countdown of the five best national champions of the past decade, ranked by frequency of elite single-game performances in the given season.

Alabama was the best team of the last decade that didn't win the national championship. Yay?

The College Football Playoff has only been around for three years, and this year's field is the best so far.

The College Football Playoff selection committee will be paying close attention to which teams make the most of rivalry week and conference championship week, but which teams have already had the best performances to date?

Will the best four teams ultimately play for the championship, or will the College Football Playoff selection committee favor the teams with the best résumés? What will matter most in the end?

Three of the top four teams in the country suffered their first losses of the season this weekend, and that shook up the playoff picture and opened the door for several one-loss teams to make a run into the postseason. Our countdown of the undefeated and one-loss teams with the best chances to win out was shaken up as well, except for the very top of the list.