This year's College Football Playoff brought some welcome new blood to the proceedings. Yes, Alabama was involved once more -- Nick Saban's Crimson Tide have been part of seven of eight CFPs and were the top seed for the fifth time -- but Georgia participated for only the second time, and two schools, Michigan and Cincinnati, made their playoff debuts.
This means that 13 programs have now qualified for the CFP, and five schools are on the list of CFP champions, with Georgia joining Bama (three times), Clemson (twice), Ohio State (once) and LSU (once).
Here is our ranking of all 32 teams that have been part of the mix to date, and because Cincinnati has become the first team from a Group of Five conference to reach the CFP, we'll rank recent history's best non-power conference teams as well.
I derived this list, as I usually do, through a combination of numbers (primarily, my SP+ ratings) and my personal opinions. Start with the stats, then adjust for actual CFP performance and any other criteria that feels relevant. To the list!
