Last year … for the second straight season … we got a true party crasher into the College Football Playoff. After Cincinnati became the first Group of 5 school to reach college football’s final four in 2021, TCU reached the national championship game despite no one picking them to get anywhere near there before the 2022 season began. TCU even lost their conference championship game and still received a No. 3 seed, then beat Michigan in the semifinal before getting thrashed by Georgia in the title game.
With one year remaining under the current format, this is the last chance for a school to really crash that party. Beginning next year,12 teams will make the playoff with one of those guaranteed to be a Group of 5 school, so the shock of a team off the radar beating the odds for a playoff spot will be gone.
This list isn’t just about teams who could find themselves in the Playoff as some schools could just be a pest and ruin someone else’s playoff hopes. The teams that could pull off that upset that keeps a title contender out of one of those four coveted spots. We’ve seen a few upsets during the season that have ended another school’s Playoff hopes.
Here are 15 schools that could throw a wrench in the 2022 College Football Playoff.
