Ranking undefeated college football teams - how each team can win it all - ESPN

Last year, we entered the final month of the regular season with six remaining unbeaten teams, all from power conferences. Four of them ended up reaching the College Football Playoff (although two had a loss), the other two, Tennessee and Clemson, strangely both lost to Shane Beamer's South Carolina in November.

The 2-6 Gamecocks won't have much of a role to play in this year's home stretch, but we could still see some odd plot twists in the coming week. This wouldn't be college football without them. We have eight remaining unbeaten teams entering Week 10, and among them could be most or all of the teams that will be playing in the CFP semifinals here in another couple of months.

From last week's Ranking the Unbeatens list, only Oklahoma left the party Saturday, falling in a delightful, back-and-forth upset to Kansas. James Madison and Washington both flirted with disaster and survived, and while Michigan earned all sorts of headlines it didn't want, it also didn't give up a single point on the field. (The Wolverines were idle.)

We know the teams that will occupy the top five slots, in some order, in Tuesday's inaugural College Football Playoff rankings. We also know the three teams that could finish 12-0 (or better) among the Group of 5's ranks. Let's once again celebrate those who have dodged disaster and rank college football's remaining unbeaten teams.

Last week's ranking: 9th

SP+ and FPI rankings: 46th and 56th

Odds of reaching 12-0, per SP+: 58.2%

What they did in Week 9: defeated Western Kentucky 42-29

Next big test (next game with SP+ win probability at 75% or lower): none

Why the Flames will finish 14-0: This offense is humming. It was easy to assume the Jamey Chadwell era was going to work out beautifully.