The 2020-2021 season (assuming that it still happens) will mark the seventh year of the College Football Playoff. With six years of data under our belts and a national quarantine underway, now is as good a time as ever to draw some sweeping conclusions in an 18S series about what it takes to be a true contender in the playoff era. To begin, I wanted to rank every team that has made the playoff using criteria I made up.

To come up with rankings and criteria that makes sense, I averaged a team’s ranking from that season in SP+, FEI and ESPN’s FPI while repeating that for offensive and defensive rankings. I decided to use margin of victory and ranked teams defeated as tiebreakers. When it comes to the ranked teams, I only use those from the final playoff rankings after the conference title games because we all know that bowl season is pretty fluky.

If this sounds extremely unscientific and imperfect, that’s because it is and I am not claiming to have invented the secret formula to judge championship teams. Nonetheless, this should provide a decent barometer for how good some of these playoff teams actually were, beginning with the bottom third.

Here are my 24 through 17 teams on the list.

#24. 2015 Michigan State

Overall Ranking: 16.3

Offense Rank: 29

Defense Rank: 22.3

Margin of Victory: 11.6 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Four (#5 Iowa, #7 Ohio State, #14 Michigan, #15 Oregon)

The 2015 Spartans bring up the rear as the undisputed worst team to make the playoff. Michigan State also sported the worst offense on this list, a real shocker for a Mark Dantonio-coached squad. This team marked the pinnacle of MSU football under Dantonio, as they finished 36-5 over a three-year stretch.

Interestingly enough, the Spartans have arguably one of the best resumes of any playoff finalist having defeated four top-15 teams. In fact, this team pulled off one of the most shocking upsets of the 2010s when Sparty beat #2 Ohio State in Columbus without Connor Cook. But a loss to 5-7 Nebraska, several close calls in the regular season, and a bludgeoning at the hands of eventual champ Alabama push the Spartans to the bottom of this list.

#23. 2019 Oklahoma

Overall Ranking: 11

Offense Rank: 3.7

Defense Rank: 53.7

Margin of Victory: 18.7 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Three (#7 Baylor twice, #25 Oklahoma State)

At first, I was a bit surprised to see the latest iteration of the Sooners so low in my arbitrary rankings. Upon further review, this ranking seems about right for a team that backed into the playoff after Alabama and Utah lost their final games. It also didn’t help that Baylor, the crown jewel of OU’s resume, was also not a true contender.

Oklahoma was dynamite to start the year when teams couldn’t figure out Jalen Hurts or a revamped defense. However, the usually unstoppable Lincoln Riley offense started to yield less gains towards the end of the season while OU’s defense cratered. All of this culminated in one of the most epic beat-downs in college football history against LSU in the semifinal.

#22. 2014 Florida State

Overall Ranking: 10.3

Offense Rank: 12

Defense Rank: 33.3

Margin of Victory: 11.7 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Three (#12 Georgia Tech, #17 Clemson, #21 Louisville)

The only reason the poster child of the “championship hangover team” is this high is because of its inexplicable #2 ranking from SP+. Otherwise, this team would be competing with MSU as the worst in the playoff. Nonetheless, FSU did have good wins and managed to finish undefeated which is more than some of the teams on this list can claim.

Just try to remember what happened when they played in the first playoff game ever.

#21. 2018 Notre Dame

Overall Ranking: 9.7

Offense Rank: 27

Defense Rank: 12.3

Margin of Victory: 16.5 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Three (#7 Michigan, #20 Syracuse, #22 Northwestern)

Hey I know this team! The 2018 Irish are the first team to break into the top ten average rating, but only just so. As we are all aware, this team was much better with Ian Book at QB and their rating would’ve been slightly higher if he had played all twelve games. At the same time, ND was good but not quite good enough to truly challenge for the national championship.

#20. 2016 Ohio State

Overall Ranking: 6

Offense Rank: 26

Defense Rank: 4.3

Margin of Victory: 28.5 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Three (#6 Michigan, #7 Oklahoma, #8 Wisconsin)

We now take a three-point leap into what I like to call the “missing ingredient tier”. A few of these following teams were national-title worthy on one side of the ball, but missing the necessary prowess on the other side. 2016 Ohio State is a lovely example of this theory with a great defense, but anemic offense.

Despite a gaudy resume which included beating three top-ten teams and an average margin of victory of nearly 30 points, this Ohio State team was undone by its offense. After destroying Oklahoma in Norman, any team with a pulse on defense gave the Buckeyes trouble and they were lucky to make the playoff over Penn State. This fatal flaw manifested itself in both of its losses, the most memorable being the 31-0 wipe-out at the hands of Clemson.

Familiar sights!

#19. 2017 Oklahoma

Overall Ranking: 5.7

Offense Rank: 1

Defense Rank: 53.3

Margin of Victory: 19.9 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Four (#5 Ohio State, #15 TCU twice, #19 Oklahoma State)

2017 Oklahoma was the inverse of our last team, with the best offense in the country but an average defense. Of course, this is pretty much the pattern for all of Lincoln Riley’s teams in Norman and the Sooners gave up 54 points in a Rose Bowl loss to Georgia.

#18. 2015 Oklahoma

Overall Ranking: 5.3

Offense Rank: 10.7

Defense Rank: 11.7

Margin of Victory: 25 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Four (#11 TCU, #16 Oklahoma State, #17 Baylor, #23 Tennessee)

What’s this? An Oklahoma team with a defense? That’s right, OU’s first playoff team was a pretty good defensive team that ranked as high as fifth in FPI. Unfortunately for the Sooners, they were not “best in the country/Heisman Winner” good on offense which prevented them from taking advantage of Eric Striker and Co. Still, this was a great team that ran into a poor match-up against ascendant Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

#17. 2018 Oklahoma

Overall Ranking: 4.7

Offense Rank: 1

Defense Rank: 93.3

Margin of Victory: 17.1 points

Ranked Teams Defeated: Three (#15 Texas, #16 West Virginia, #23 Iowa State)

Rounding out what I should’ve called “the Oklahoma tier” is the most extreme example of a team missing a vital ingredient. Believe it or not, OU’s 2018 offense is the highest rated in SP+ history, even higher than LSU this past season. It was even good enough to make the OU-Bama affair a competitive game after the first quarter. It was maybe the best offense in CFB history which is why it’s ranked relatively high on this list.

However, it was paired with the putrid cesspool that was the Sooners’ defense. A year after a poor defensive performance cost Oklahoma the Rose Bowl, Mike Stoops barfed out the worst unit on this entire list. Fun fact: in Oklahoma’s four playoff appearances, they have given up an average of 50 points per game.

This marks the end of the first third of the list, the next eight will be out soon. Let me know what you think of the rankings so far in the comments.