Here’s how unbeaten TCU can earn a berth into the College Football Playoffs
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TCU Homecoming 2022
What you need to know about TCU’s homecoming game against Kansas State and everything there is to do in the area. Plus, read more in-depth analysis of this season’s Horned Frogs team from sports writers Mac Engel and Steven Johnson.
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Is it too soon to start thinking about TCU earning a spot in the College Football Playoff?
Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes would say it is.
Fans may think otherwise.
Halfway through the season, the surprising 6-0 Horned Frogs have positioned themselves for a run at the Big 12 championship and at one of the four berths into the college football playoffs.
How realistic is it?
TCU will need to leapfrog — see what we did there — several teams to earn one of the four playoff spots. And there’s really only one way of doing it: Do exactly what they did in the first half of the season: Go 6-0.
And, oh, yeah. Win the Big 12 championship game in Arlington on Dec. 3.
Sound impossible? Not really. Consider the Horned Frogs are coming off back-to-back-to-back wins over Top 25 teams. With No. 17 Kansas State on the horizon on Saturday, it’s another opportunity to prove the college pundits and television analysts wrong.
But that’s only step one.
The five remaining games are all challenging in different ways: Oct. 29 at West Virginia, Nov. 5 at home against Texas Tech, Nov. 12 at Texas, Nov. 19 at Baylor, Nov. 26 at home against Iowa State.
If the Horned Frogs are 8-0 after the West Virginia game, circle Nov. 1 on your calendar. That’s the date the College Football Playoff Selection Committee releases its first rankings. The committee uses many variables, including the the AP (writers) and USA TODAY (coaches) polls, to make their own rankings. Those are the rankings that determine which four teams receive invitations to the college football playoffs and the two national semifinal games.
The first CFP rankings will certainly include many familiar names. Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Tennessee, Clemson, Alabama and Ole Miss are currently ranked in the polls ahead of the Horned Frogs.
Yet those rankings are guaranteed to shuffle over the final month when some of the those teams meet. Georgia still must play Tennessee on Nov. 5, Alabama and Ole Miss meet on Nov. 12, Michigan plays Ohio State on Nov. 26.
But it also means that at least four of those teams could still be unbeaten at the end of the regular season. And there’s also the heavyweight Alabama and its possible one-loss season. And the heavy argument of the SEC bias.
Bottom line: The Horned Frogs must win out. And that includes winning the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 3 at AT&T Stadium. With a perfect 13-0 record, including wins over at least six Top 25 opponents, an appearance in the College Football Playoffs is possible. Then it’s up the to the selection committee.
Sounds crazy, right?
Yes. But with each passing week and amazing win, the far-out dream inches a tad more toward possible. And these Horned Frogs have proved that anything is possible this season.
This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 12:09 PM.
