College Football Playoff Pretenders after Week 2

This weekly update of CFB Playoff Pretenders uses the movement of Playoff probabilities generated by ESPN Analytics. Last week's College Football Pretender List considered 27 teams ESPN gave an 11.2% or greater probability of making the 12-team Playoff.

From those 27 teams, four Pretenders were identified, Florida State, Texas A&M, Auburn, and SMU. Five more teams were identified as teams to watch for future Pretender status. They were Clemson, Michigan, LSU, Oklahoma, and Oregon.

Teams with a probability of less than 10% are excluded from being identified as Pretenders. As a result, Texas A&M (5.5%), Auburn (2.6%), SMU (2.6%), and FSU (0.5%) are removed from Pretender status. In Playoff terms they are irrelevant.

For this week's CFB Playoff Pretenders, all 27 teams having an 11.2% or greater Playoff probability are considered. Every team with a probability of 26.9% or higher is currently considered a contender.

College Football Week 2 Playoff Pretenders

• Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1-1) - At 23.2% as calculated by ESPN's algorithm, UND should have a chance to make the Playoff field. Notre Dame's remaining schedule gives the Irish the potential to run the table, and get to 11-1. My hunch is they will lose one or two more games. Even if Notre Dame gets to 11-1, the home loss to a MAC team, Northern Illinois will likely destroy their hopes of a Playoff at-large bid.

• Northern Illinois Huskies (2-0) - At 15.7% per ESPN, the Huskies must be considered. However they finish they will be one of the greatest stories of the 2024 college football season. Going from beating the Western Illinois Leathernecks in Week 1 to knocking off the Irish, in South Bend in Week 2 is legendary. My hunch is should Boise State win the Mountain West, the Broncos, based on Strength of Schedule would make the Playoff field over an undefeated Northern Illinois team. BSU's 'good loss' by three points to Oregon should impress the Selection Committee.