No. 1 Oregon, as the nation’s only undefeated team, enjoys favorite status, but barely. The Ducks' challenging bracket placement might require them to tackle No. 8 Ohio State and No. 5 Texas just to reach the national championship game.

It's a hell of a time to expand the College Football Playoff, then! Six of those eight barely separated teams made the first-ever 12-team CFP field, and per SP+ no one starts out with a better than 20.