and chaos elsewhere.

I'm not as convinced Big Ten is a shoo-in as they have been in the past. Ohio State is clearly vulnerable. To me the Ryan Day hire was always a long-term risk similar to Clay Helton at USC b/c he hadn't really proven he can run a program effectively: he can coach well enough and he can recruit (or the name Ohio State can). I wondered how long it would be before there was a fall from grace. This might be the year. Penn State and Michigan have looked very good but time will tell if they can sustain that as they have had great Septembers in the past decade followed by less-than-stellar October's and November's. The West's best chance is Iowa which has struggled against the East at times in the past. I could see a scenario where a 2-loss champ wins it, just b/c of parity and head-to-head matchups.

ACC has to put all its eggs in the Clemson basket again and they look very vulnerable. 2-loss Clemson is possible/likely; 2-loss champ is almost a certainty.

Pac 12 is Oregon or bust at this point. UCLA's best chances at quality wins are against the same teams that we played/beat (so if they beat them those wins deteriorate in value as well).

Big 12 is intriguing. Their shot is Oklahoma OR whoever beats Oklahoma, assuming they don't lose other games.

I don't believe BYU goes undefeated or gets in the playoff, but at least this year I feel like the pool of possible playoff teams is much bigger than it ever has been in the past.