Urban Meyer sees over 30 teams still having College Football Playoff hopes

Prior to the advent of the 12-team College Football Playoff last season, Urban Meyer famously claimed there were only eight teams with realistic chances of winning a national championship year-in and year-out. A little more than a year later, the former Ohio State and Florida head coach has changed his tune.

Amid a season where three of the AP’s preseason Top 4 teams have already completely fallen out of the Top 25 six weeks in, Meyer believes there are now “over 30 teams” that are still in the mix to make this year’s 12-team College Football Playoff field, and by doing so potentially win the national championship.

“I used to call it the ‘Elite Eight’ and I’d share it with our teams and say these are the peoples we had to compete against,” Meyer said during Wednesday’s episode of The Triple Option podcast with co-hosts Mark Ingram and Rob Stone. “You had the normal Alabama, Ohio State, the (Michigan) Wolverines and whomever, Georgia maybe. And then you had every once in awhile a TCU show up in there or another program (like) Penn State show up in there.

“But now I went through it and I’m counting over 30 teams that can still take a swing and get into the Playoffs. Thirty teams. Now there are still some longshots, UNLV is 5-0, … but they’re 5-0. And that’s without studying the personnel and all that. But there’s 30 teams.”

“It’s true, Coach,” Ingram said. “Because all you have to do is get to your conference championship (game).”

Of course, Penn State is among those Top 4 preseason favorites that appear to have fallen out of contention after a second-consecutive loss in Big Ten play, putting its chances of making the conference title game in Indianapolis on life support. But if Meyer’s 30 figure is correct, the two-loss Nittany Lions might still be among his national champion contenders with the third-most receiving votes (97) to effectively represent the 28th-best team in the most recent AP Top 25 poll.

Meyer didn’t reveal all 30 of his championship-caliber teams, but it might not be a stretch to consider everyone currently in the AP Top 25 as well as several just outside the ranking as potential candidates.

In fact, while the SEC currently has nine of its 16 programs among the AP Top 25, a two-loss team like South Carolina (3-2, 1-2 SEC) could still work its way back into the Playoff mix with a string of upsets against its next five opponents, all ranked in the Top 11 currently. A longshot for sure, but based on the Gamecocks’ late-season push last season, it’s hardly out of the realm of possibility.